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Layli Long Soldier’s 2026 book We brings together poetry, essays, short stories, photographs and visual art. In an interview with artist Dyani White Hawk for Hyperallergic, Long Soldier describes how a poem’s shape can come before its language or emerge through drafting, and how she guides readers through difficult material.
Poet Layli Long Soldier’s new book, We, published by Graywolf Press in 2026, combines poetry with essays, short stories, photographs and visual art. In an interview published by Hyperallergic, Long Soldier told artist Dyani White Hawk that the form of a poem may arrive before its language or take shape after she has worked through words, a process that can last months or years.
The book’s title carries two meanings: the English word we and the Lakota word wé, meaning “blood.” The publication presents poetry and storytelling through visual choices that include placement on the page, formatting, omission, symbols, color, rhythm and pauses. White Hawk’s interview describes it as a work spanning literary and visual art; that is her characterization of the book, rather than a claim about how all readers will experience it.
Long Soldier said her process varies from poem to poem. Sometimes she sees a shape first and treats it as an initial constraint, then builds language within it. At other times, she starts with a memory, person or experience and searches for words before testing possible forms. She said some poems take months or years to finish, and that finding the right form can give a poem momentum.
She also described the reader as a guest whom she guides through the work. In discussing the essay “Through the Pupil of Instinct,” which appears in We, Long Soldier said it includes first-hand accounts from survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre and shifts among that history, her child’s school day and a drive through Minneapolis with poet Heid Erdrich. She said those changes offer readers “time and breath” while she addresses painful subjects.
Form as a Way Into Difficult History
The interview offers readers a view of how formal choices shape Long Soldier’s account of experience and history. Page layout, pacing and shifts in subject are not described simply as decoration: Long Soldier discusses them as part of how she develops a poem and sustains a reader through difficult material.
Her explanation also connects the book’s creative process to practices of patient, detailed making. She said friends and relatives who bead or create detailed sculpture inspire her to work attentively, sometimes on tightly constrained poems. The connection matters because it makes clear that her approach draws on relationships and artistic practice, not only abstract ideas about literary form.
White Hawk frames the book through Lakota values and philosophy, and the title’s Lakota meaning links the idea of “we” to blood and shared life. Long Soldier’s comments establish her own process and intentions; broader claims about what the work means to every reader remain matters of interpretation.
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From Whereas to We
Long Soldier’s 2017 poetry collection Whereas is the earlier work named in the Hyperallergic report. White Hawk writes that readers familiar with it may recognize Long Soldier’s literary style while encountering new forms in We. The interview does not position the new book as a sequel; it presents it as an expansive work that moves across genres and visual media.
White Hawk and Long Soldier describe a relationship spanning roughly 20 years. They first met while attending the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and White Hawk identifies them as Lakota artists and mothers who have remained friends and colleagues. White Hawk conducted the interview, which the report says was edited and condensed for clarity.
The source also identifies “A Line Through Grief” and “Obligations” as poems whose forms require precise use of space. It provides no publication or sales figures, and makes no claim that We has received an award or reached a particular audience.
““I consider the reader a guest.””
— Layli Long Soldier, speaking to Dyani White Hawk in Hyperallergic
What the Interview Does Not Establish
The report identifies We as a 2026 Graywolf Press publication, but the supplied material gives no exact release date, page count, price or distribution details. It also does not provide independent reviews, sales data or evidence of how readers have responded to the book.
The interview records Long Soldier’s account of her writing methods and intentions. It does not establish that every reader will find the work accessible, or that the shifts in “Through the Pupil of Instinct” have the same effect for all readers. The source does not give further detail about the survivors’ accounts discussed in the essay.
Readers Can Turn to We
We is the next point of engagement for readers interested in Long Soldier’s account of its form and themes. The source identifies Graywolf Press as the publisher but does not announce a reading schedule, tour, event or later interview.
For now, the documented development is the book’s 2026 publication and Long Soldier’s discussion of how its poems and prose were made. Further details about availability, public events and critical reception are not supplied in the Hyperallergic report.
Key Questions
What is Layli Long Soldier’s new book?
We is a 2026 book from Graywolf Press that brings together poetry, essays, short stories, photographs and visual art, according to the Hyperallergic report.
What does the title We mean?
The report says the title refers both to the English word we and the Lakota word wé, meaning “blood.”
How does Long Soldier decide the form of a poem?
She told Dyani White Hawk that sometimes a shape comes first and guides the writing. In other cases, she begins with language tied to a memory, person or experience, then works to find a form. Some poems take months or years to complete.
How does the book address painful history?
Long Soldier discussed “Through the Pupil of Instinct,” an essay in We that includes first-hand accounts from survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre. She said it moves among historical material and other scenes to give readers pauses while addressing harm and injustice.
Source: hyperallergic.com
