Velroy and the Madischie Mafia

From the Comanche Tribal Housing of Madischie in southwestern Oklahoma comes a crew of young Comanche, Arapahoe, and Kiowa toughs hell-bent on gaining power within a subculture of organized crime. Led by a Comanche named Velroy, they find themselves caught in the century-long transformation from the old Comanche Nation to a modern-day casino-owning tribe. Hoahwah relays their story with a distinctive narrative flair, honed syntax, wild imagery, and a splash of lyricism.

"Hoahwah's Comanche county is a landscape haunted equally by death and beauty, and the ghosts that weave casually in and out of the arresting poems belong as much to the present as the past. Velroy and the Madischie Mafia embodies a tribal reality of meth labs, crow calls, and fancy dancing in which 'boys neither go to heaven nor hell / but into ghost stories.' The collection replaces popular clichés of historical destruction and vanishing culture with a sharp-edged portrayal of contemporary continuance in Indian country. . . . Hoahwah's book echoes our own 'hunger to answer' old languages heard in the dark." —Kimberly Blaeser, author of Copper Yearning

"I'm always listening for the emergence of the next generation of young Native poet-prophets. One of them is right here. . . . Hoahwah's finding the way to navigate the Comanche soul in these poems: by listening, taking it all down, and singing it back. Take a listen. He'll capture you." —Joy Harjo, United States Poet Laureate and author of An American Sunrise: Poems