Confluences of Solitude: Kurt Schweigman & Kim Shuck

After nearly a decade, Mitote Press brings us 39 new poems and prose by American Indian poet Kurt Schweigman (Oglala/Sicangu Lakota). Confluences of Solitude delves into contemporary themes as well as juxtaposing the past and present, with topics ranging from advocacy and art, humor and loss, and, of course, solitude. The collection of narrative poetry takes us from South Dakota to the Bay Area of California and into Baja Sur, Mexico. Kurt formerly performed and published under the nom de plume Luke Warm Water. His work has been published in many literary journals and poetry anthologies. National and international award-winning poet and writer Jimmy Santiago Baca gave accolade for Confluences of Solitude, remarking, “here’s a poetry raised on fire and ice, love and loathing, sorrow and quiet joy. It bursts upon the reader like a wave of wind that unsettles our assumptions.”

Kim Shuck is a poet, weaver, educator, doer of piles of laundry, planter of seeds, traveler and child wrangler. She was born in her mother’s hometown of San Francisco, one hill away from where she now lives. Her ancestors were and are Tsalagi, Sauk and Fox and Polish, for the most part, and she is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She received a BA in Art and an MFA in Textiles from San Francisco State University. She was appointed San Francisco’s 7th Poet Laureate in 2017. Her most recent books are Deer Trails (City Lights Poet Laureate series, 2019), Exile Heart (2021), Noodle, Rant, Tangent (2022), and Wandering State: Poems from Alta (2023, editor).