LEGENDARY FRYBREAD DRIVE-IN

The titular food truck’s imagined travels link the entries in this anthology by celebrated and up-and-coming Native authors.

Sandy June’s Legendary Frybread Drive-In feels both familiar and original—a mystical community space that can appear anywhere, serving as the perfect liminal meeting space for Indigenous people across North America. From Oklahoma to Alaska, Hawai‘i to Manitoba, the stories cross our borders. In the 18 entries, which encompass both poetry and prose as well as different genres, readers meet a variety of Native people—gamer, athlete, musician—from a diverse range of communities, including Black Natives. The emotional core of the book feels deftly balanced, ranging from touching moments of magical connection with loved ones to emotional explorations of feelings like grief, and regular teenage awkwardness and crushes. A date goes awry, there’s a tornado to deal with alone, and a cousin to reconnect with. Across the board, the authors write lifelike characters; even when the setting is fantastical, the well-wrought characterizations are rooted in realism. A major strength of this collection is that it offers the perfect gateway to discovering the writing of noted authors, including Eric Gansworth, Darcie Little Badger, Andrea L. Rogers, Cheryl Isaacs, Brian Young, Jen Ferguson, Byron Graves, Angeline Boulley, David A. Robertson, and editor Smith, among others. Obvious thought and care went into the crafting and arranging of the stories, with expertly executed callbacks to previous entries.

Superlative.