Shapes of Native Nonfiction

[T]he more I looked at baskets, the more I thought about experimental essay structures. —Elissa Washuta

Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers is an anthology edited by Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton on the craft of writing. Through twenty-seven essays, the book uses basketweaving as a metaphor for native and indigenous approaches to shaping texts, and explores how that approach diverges from non-native and European strategies for organizing writing. For the cover, designer Katrina Noble chose Florian Runge’s flare serif Gitan, which, with its system of dents and bulges, looks almost as if it has been hewn by hand.