No More Cake Here

The poems from Natalie Diaz’s collection When My Brother Was an Aztec draw from autobiographical material, such as Diaz’s experiences living in a Native community and growing up with a large family, including a brother with addiction issues. However, the poems reflect interest in every aspect of the poem—its source material, its relation to colonial histories, and the possibilities it holds for language and lyric. Diaz came to poetry via a basketball career, first on scholarship to Old Dominion University, and then as a professional player. She is a person of Mojave and Spanish lineage who played pro basketball throughout Asia and Europe before she returned to pursue an MFA. After graduate school, she went on to support the restoration of the Mojave language, as well as teach in a graduate program for a North American university in the Southwest United States.