#will roscoe

The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100–1200 BCE), author unknown

Endorsement from submitter: "Enkidu, my friend, who chased wild asses in the mountain, the panther of the wilderness, we joined together, and went up into the mountain. We grappled with and killed the Bull of Heaven, we destroyed Humbaba who dwelled in the Cedar Forest, we slew lions in the mountain passes! My friend, whom I love deeply, who went through every hard- ship with me, Enkidu, my friend, whom I love deeply, who went through every hardship with me, the fate of mankind has overtaken him. Six days and seven nights I mourned over him and would not allow him to be buried"

Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world’s oldest epic, predating Homer by many centuries. The story tells of Gilgamesh’s adventures with the wild man Enkidu, and of his arduous journey to the ends of the earth in quest of the Babylonian Noah and the secret of immortality. Alongside its themes of family, friendship and the duties of kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is, above all, about mankind’s eternal struggle with the fear of death.

The Babylonian version has been known for over a century, but linguists are still deciphering new fragments in Akkadian and Sumerian.

Classics, poetry, epic, adult

Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology (1988), ed. by Will Roscoe

A groundbreaking collection of essays and stories by, about, and selected by gay American Indians from over twenty North American tribes.

From the preface by Randy Burns (Northern Paiute):

Gay American Indians are active members of both the American Indian and gay communities. But our voices have not been heard. To end this silence, GAI is publishing Living the A Gay American Indian Anthology .

Living the Spirit honors the past and present life of gay American Indians. This book is not just about gay American Indians, it is by gay Indians. Over twenty different American Indian writers, men and women, represent tribes from every part of North America.

Living the Spirit tells our story—the story of our history and traditions, as well as the realities and challenges of the present.

As Paula Gunn Allen writes, “Some like Indians endure.” The themes of change and continuity are a part of every contribution in this book—in the contemporary coyote tales by Daniel-Harry Steward and Beth Brant—in the reservation experiences of Jerry, a Hupa Indian—in the painful memories of cruelty and injustice that Beth Brant, Chrystos, and others evoke. Our pain, but also our joy, our love, and our sexuality, are all here, in these pages. M. Owlfeather writes, “If traditions have been lost, then new ones should be borrowed from other tribes,” and he uses the example of the Indian pow-wow—Indian, yet contemporary and pantribal.

One of our traditional roles was that of the “go-between”—individuals who could help different groups communicate with each other. This is the role GAI hopes to play today. We are advocates for not only gay but American Indian concerns, as well. We are turning double oppression into double continuity—the chance to build bridges between communities, to create a place for gay Indians in both of the worlds we live in, to honor our past and secure our future.