Sacred City

Few books embody the freneticism of urban life like [Sacred Smokes and Sacred City].'--Chicago Review of Books

There aren't enough representations of urban Native lives in books . . .but Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. has made an essential contribution.'--Tommy Orange, Today

In this collection of vivid, visceral, and vital stories, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. reminds us that Native American voices cannot be contained.'--Bill Savage, Northwestern University

Tecumseh said, 'The Great Spirit above knows no boundaries,' and neither does Ted Van Alst: the stories in Sacred City are electrifying, propulsive, and light up the land with indignation and fierce compassion. Here are stories about people's struggles that are as heartbreaking and gritty as they are ingenious. I loved it.'--Brandon Hobson, National Book Award finalist and author of The Removed: A Novel

Reading this one, you think Sacred Smokes never went over, but then you look down at this sidewalk Theo Van Alst's been leading you down and realize you're standing in Sacred City, and you kind of never want to leave, so long as he'll keep telling these stories.'--Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians

Sacred City's swagger is as sacred as it is profane. Van Alst's writing is ancient blood screaming through the streets of Chicago. This is more than literature; it's history, love, violence, ancestral knowledge, and brotherhood thrown on the page with the power of a Molotov cocktail and the precision of a lyricist. I'd say something about transcendence and the universe, but this book taught me not to think so small.'--Gabino Iglesias, author of Coyote Songs

Sacred City is a brilliant powerhouse that hit me like a poetry jam session, some damn fine urban-Indian music; Chicago honor song, love song, protest hymn, and dirge. Smart and smart-ass conversation, showing our slide from one cultural lexicon to another, all woven together in a Chi-Town Native special. Sacred City tells us real stories of people we might not know, but should. It maps layers of a sprawling town's history and its deep Indigenous roots. A dazzling achievement!'--Susan Power, author of Sacred Wilderness

Van Alst's writing is riveting and funny as hell; brutal, blunt, and utterly unique YA. Sacred City is a serious ass kicking--a young-adult voice with poetry and violence and a history that feels too present day to call prescient overflowing its pages. I cannot recommend strongly enough, and as with Van Alst's previous work, I wish I was still teaching high school language arts, because Sacred City certainly belongs on the syllabus.'--Kimberly Davis Basso, author of I'm a Little Brain Dead and Birth and Other Surprises