In this conversation, Heid E. Erdrich reads “Weweni” by Louise K. Waakaa’igan and responds with her poem “Territory was Not Virgin and Neither was I (Virgin).”

If you visit the website heiderdrich.com you will find a modest biography saying that she is is the author of seven collections of poetry, a non-fiction Indigenous foods memoir, and she’s editor of two anthologies. Heid grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain.

What her website will not tell you, is that if you have the delve into her substantial oeuvre, you will discover that Heid E. Erdrich is a poet working in the vast realm of prophetic imagination.