Picked Apart the Bones

A collection of poems illustrating the cultural and familial experiences of a Chickasaw woman

For Rebecca Hatcher Travis, writing a book of poems is similar to growing a pecan tree. Both take a long time to develop. For the poems in this exquisite collection, "the seeds were planted in childhood and earth, and blossomed with family and love." Hatcher Travis bases her poems on memories of her Chickasaw family and the Oklahoma landscapes surrounding her as a child. The poems also are testimonies to the ancestors who have passed on to the next life.

Featuring the poem Picked Apart the Bones, which won the First Book Award for Poetry from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.