Terra Trevor is the author of We Who Walk the Seven Ways: A Memoir (University of Nebraska Press). Her essays are widely published in anthologies, including Tending the Fire: Native Voices Portraits (University of New Mexico Press), Children of the Dragonfly: Native American Voices on Child Custody and Education (The University of Arizona Press), The People Who Stayed: Southeastern Indian Writing After Removal (University of Oklahoma Press), Unpapered: Writers Consider Native American Identity and Cultural belonging (University of Nebraska Press), and Mixed Roots: Writers on Multiracial Identity and Both/And Belonging, forthcoming from Beacon Press, Fall 2026. Terra is the granddaughter of Oklahoma sharecroppers, born in the early 1950s and raised in a large extended family rich with banjo music and storytelling. She came of age in Southeast Los Angeles with roots in Compton, California where her life was divided between the city and the Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Mountains. Her stories are steeped in themes of home, place and belonging, her identity as a mixed-blood, and her connection to the landscape.
Author's Note
Some of the essays and stories included here are serious/substantial and are balanced with lighter topics. Some were posted a decade or two ago, a few are new, and all were first published in literary journals and in other venues. Most of all, my writing is timeless vs timely.
Thank you to the editors where these pieces were first published.
I'm no longer writing here, I've moved to a new address. Words Facing West on Substack.
Heartfelt thank you to my readers who have followed my writing here from 2009-2025. I am honored and grateful to each one of you.
