Traveling with the Underground People by Vivian Faith Prescott

“Vivian Faith Prescott takes us on a beautiful bridge back and forth between moments of brokenness and moments of power. In her poems we walk toward the terrible place of racism, generational trauma, and identity fractured by colonialism: scull measurements, graves broken into, grandsons on meth. But just when we feel too much despair, she takes us back across to poems of grandmothers and drums, and reindeer eating mushrooms. Reading these brave poems is walking on an intense emotional journey with Prescott, and even after we’ve left her side, the poems linger. “And all I can do is borrow a lamp/for the long journey back home.”

–Emily Wall, Associate Professor of English, University of Alaska Southeast, author of Liveaboard (Salmon Poetry, 2012)

“Vivian Faith Prescott has assembled an insightful, multi layered and sometimes emotional chapbook that chronicles a Sami North American journey. I am struck by the depth of knowledge she writes from, as well as the diversity of presentation. A great read….recommended.”

–Nathan Muus, Musician, Co-Editor Baiki: The International Sami Journal