White Magic
Description
Throughout her life, Elissa Washuta has been surrounded by cheap facsimiles of Native spiritual tools and occult trends, "starter witch kits" of sage, rose quartz, and tarot cards packaged together in paper and plastic. Following a decade of abuse, addiction, PTSD, and heavy-duty drug treatment for a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, she felt drawn to the real spirits and powers her dispossessed and discarded ancestors knew, while she undertook necessary work to find love and meaning.
In this collection of intertwined essays, she writes about land, heartbreak, and colonization, about life without the escape hatch of intoxication, and about how she became a powerful witch. She interlaces stories from her forebears with cultural artifacts from her own life--Twin Peaks, the Oregon Trail II video game, a Claymation Satan, a YouTube video of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham--to explore questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule.
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About the Author
Elissa Washuta, a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, was born in New Jersey and now lives in Seattle. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington in 2009 and has been the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Award, a Potlatch Fund Native Arts Grant, a 4Culture Grant, and a Made at Hugo House Fellowship. Her work has appeared in Salon, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Third Coast. She is an adviser and lecturer in American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. My Body Is a Book of Rules is her first book.
Reviews
An innovative and deeply felt work to sink into.--The Millions
Elissa Washuta's newest collection of essays is coming out in 2021--and they may be exactly what you need right now.--O, The Oprah Magazine
Washuta's frank confrontations with, and acknowledgments of, unhealed wounds are validating. . . . evoking the sense of peeling open a letter from an estranged friend. A poignant work by a rising essayist.--Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
Her prose is crisp and precise, and the references hit spot-on. . . . Fans of the personal essay are in for a treat.--Publishers Weekly
This is definitely one that you need on your TBR right now. Like stop whatever you're doing, open your Goodreads or whatever you use. StoryGraph. And add it because it's definitely one you're going to want to read this year.--Reading Women Podcast
White magic, red magic, Stevie Nicks magic--this is Elissa Washuta magic, which is a spell carved from a life, written in blood, and sealed in an honesty I can hardly fathom.--Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians
Elissa Washuta is exactly the writer we need right now: as funny as she is formidable a thinker, as thoughtful as she is inventive--her scrutiny is a fearless tool, every subject whittled to its truest form.--Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood
These pages are windows into a black lodge where Twin Peaks and Fleetwood Mac are on repeat--sometimes forward, sometimes backwards, sometimes in blackout blur. I stand in awe of everything here. What an incredible and wounding read.--Richard van Camp, author of The Lesser Blessed
White Magic is funny and wry, it's thought-provoking and tender. It's a sleight of hand performed by a true master of the craft. White Magic is magnificent and Elissa Washuta is spellbinding. There is no one else like her.--Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things
White Magic is funny and wry, it's thought-provoking and tender. It's a sleight of hand performed by a true master of the craft. White Magic is magnificent and Elissa Washuta is spellbinding. There is no one else like her.--Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things
In this riveting and insightful collection of personal essays, Washuta candidly explores addiction, mental illness, coping (and not), relationships, land, pop culture, colonization, magic and cultural legacy.--Ms. Magazine
