Possible Futures' (Updated) Thanksgiving Reads

Jada Boggs and Lauren Anderson. Lucy Gellman Photos.

A new collection of recipes that tells doubles as a history of North America and its Native foodways. A book of poetry that celebrates the strength of Native women and girls, drawing from one writer's own experience, and her hopes for the next generation. An anthology that lives somewhere between fiction and essay, with authors who aren't worried about which genre they are bending. A Wampanoag take on the Thanksgiving narrative, told in a way that young readers can understand. 

Those are just a few of the books that build a timely November display at Possible Futures, the Edgewood Avenue bookspace that turned three years old earlier this year. In honor of Native American Heritage Month and advance of Thanksgiving—which for many is not a celebration, but a National Day of Mourning—founder Lauren Anderson and bookjoy bringer Jada Boggs sat down to discuss the importance of reading Native authors, supporting Native businesses, and amplifying Native voices all year round. 

"You know, Indigenous voices are among those that have been most suppressed by our government and all of the interlocking systems of oppression, and it's important to learn from them," Anderson said, holding a stack of books that jumped from Robin Wall Kimmerer's The Serviceberry to Adam Johnson's The Wayfinder. "It's both about, like, having a more critical understanding of Thanksgiving, and American history, but it's also the importance of supporting Indigenous makers and authors and musicians. And that can be true right here in New Haven." 

On the table, titles multiplied: Cynthia Leitich Smith's intertribal YA anthology Legendary Frybread Drive-In, Angeline Boulley's Sisters In The Wind, Patty Krawec's Bad Indians Book Club, Eliana Ramage's To The Moon and Back. On any given day, Anderson also recommends "anything by Louise Erdrich," whose Minneapolis-based bookstore, Birchbark Books, is one of her bibliophilic dream destinations. 

All of the books—and so many others—carry weight in New Haven, which sits on the unceded land of the Quinnipiac, Wappinger and Pagusset peoples. In 2022—the same year that Possible Futures opened at 318 Edgewood Ave.—Anderson shared a list of books from beloved authors, from Michaela Goade and Monique Gray Smith to Chris Newell to Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

While "we absolutely stand by those," Anderson has watched with delight as books by Native authors continue to enter the world, with selections that range from richly illustrated picks for children to young adult (YA) novels to cookbooks and tomes about Indigenous history that include first-person interviews and images of tribal life over several decades. 

For her, some recent favorites include Sean Sherman's Turtle Island, a new cookbook that explores Native North American histories through both food and land ("That's sort of like a must-have, I think, for people who love cookbooks," she said); Wall Kimmerer's The Serviceberry, which pulls lessons on gratitude and the gift economy from nature; Darcie Little Badger, Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, and Kinsale Drake's Beyond The Glittering World,  an anthology that explores Indigenous feminisms from the perspective of those writing those histories; and Rebecca Nagle's By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land. 

"It's just crucial for a critical understanding of this country, and also the resilience and survivance of Indigenous peoples," Anderson said of the last. She added that Nagle's Substack, including a recent offering about Thanksgiving, is worth reading all year round. 

For children, Anderson recommends two longtime favorites: Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry & Alexis Bunten's Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story, and Simon Ortiz and Sharol Graves' The People Shall Continue. "It's like a long-form poem, but in a paperback picture book," she said. "It talks about first contact, but like, puts that in the much longer history of Indigenous stewardship of the land in the Americas."  

She also recommends Newell's 2021 If You Lived During The Plymouth Thanksgiving, by a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe who lives right here in Connecticut.  

She is quick to acknowledge that she has many favorites beyond those, like Richard Van Camp (Tłı̨chǫ Dene) and Julie Flett's (Cree-Métis) Little You and We Sang You Home, the kind of books that will crack your heart wide open every time you read them. For the latter, there here are versions in Cree, thanks to organizations like the Cree Literacy Network. 

Boggs, who Wednesday buzzed between the register and the snugly packed shelves, added that she's particularly excited about jaye simpson's A Body More Tolerable, a book of poetry about trans girlhood, identity, and Indigenous histories of displacement and forced removal that may have changed shape—foster care instead of residential schools, for instance—but are still symptoms of an oppressive and violent system. 

Boggs said she also recommends We Survived the Night, a new book from author Julian Brave NoiseCat that explores not just Indigenous life today, but the languages, traditions and rich culture that risks erasure in the face of colonialism. Throughout the book, the author weaves in the Coyote story, making it clear that this is both his story, and one that is so much bigger than him.

"It's kind of a mix of a memoir and mythology and history," Boggs said. "We start from, like, first contact and throughout, but it's one where we get to see identity, both personal and political kind of like baked in to the story. I was very grateful to have read it ... when we look at history, sometimes we get distanced to it." 

In addition to the storefront's display, Anderson is quick to say that readers should read and support Indigenous authors, artists, and thinkers not just in November, but all year round. Those include, for instance, Cheyenne Jade's small business Blue Sky Beads or artist Kim Weston's Wábi Arts in New Haven, as well as bookstores like Black Walnut and Little Black Walnut, a queer- and Indigenous-owned bookstore that Hillary Smith runs in Glens Falls, New York. 

She added that she's always excited to help patrons find the right book about Native history for them—that the display is just a starting point. 

"I think one of the things bookstores do well, if they're small places that know the people that they're serving, is that they offer personalized suggestions," she said. "So you can come up with a general list, but the real beauty is in giving somebody a very particular recommendation. So I love the lists that we've offered, and I hope that people will come in and feel comfortable talking to us about what it is they want to read."