Diné poet explores climate change through land, language
Submitted | McClelland & Stewart
Horses by Diné poet Matthew Jake Skeets, published by McClelland & Stewart, features a stark yellow-and-gray cover with minimalist line drawings of horses moving across an open landscape.
By Krista Allen
Navajo Times
CANYON POINT, Utah – Matthew Jake Skeets returns to poetry with a new collection that examines how the Navajo Nation’s landscape changes under environmental pressure and what persists as the land shifts.
Skeets’ second full-length poetry collection, “Horses,” will be on sale March 24, 2026, through McClelland & Stewart. The 128-page book is his second full-length collection following “Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers,” which won the National Poetry Series, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and an American Book Award.
Skeets structures the new collection as a quartet. The opening section reflects on a 2018 incident in northern Arizona when nearly 200 feral horses were found mired in mud that had once been a stock pond. A source of life became a death trap for a herd already living on the edge of survival.
To read the full article, please see the Feb. 19, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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