Episode 380: The Anti-Western: An Indigenous Point of View

In this episode of Diverse Voices Book Review, contributor Kimberly Lau interviews Blair Palmer Yoxall, author of the debut novel TREAT THEM AS BUFFALO. In the conversation, Yoxall describes the novel as a feminist anti‑Western set in Canada during the 1885 Northwest Resistance. The interview explores how the novel challenges colonial frontier myths by centering the Métis community, a distinct Indigenous people of Canada. They also discuss the novel’s historical backdrop during the Northwest Resistance, its focus on community rather than lone heroes, and its centering of women, family, and collective survival.Blair Palmer Yoxall (he/him/his) is a writer and poet. His fiction won the 2015 Striking Prose Competition (sponsored by Terry Whitehead) and the 2019 James Patrick Folinsbee Prize in English and has been shortlisted for a 2017 Norma Epstein Foundation Award and a 2019 Indigenous Voices Award. He is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta and of Métis and settler parentage. Yoxall holds an M.A. in English in Indigenous Literatures and Westerns. Follow him on Instagram @atayookee.Kimberly J. Lau is Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the author of SPECTERS OF THE MARVELOUS: Race and the Development of the European Fairy Tale.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_review Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social