I Kept Thinking Back

Alayna Eagle Shield is Lakȟóta Húŋkpapȟa and Arikara and a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. A doctoral student in education and a research assistant at the Banks Center for Educational Justice at the University of Washington, Eagle Shield previously worked as the SRST Health Education Director, a Lakota language instructor at the Lakota Language Immersion Nest, and as the Language Specialist for the Standing Rock Language and Culture Institute.

Teresa Dzieglewicz is an educator, poet, and lover of rivers. She is a poet-in-residence with the Chicago Poetry Center and part of the founding team of the Mní Wičhóni Nakíčižiŋ Wóuŋspe. Her first book, Something Small of How to See a River, won Tupelo Press’s Dorset Prize (selected by Tyehimba Jess) and is forthcoming in 2023. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, Auburn Witness Prize, and Palette Poetry Prize and has received fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Community of Writers, and Brooklyn Poets. Her poems appear in Beloit Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, Ninth Letter, Sixth Finch, Best New Poets, and elsewhere.