Earthquake weather

It's unmistakable, that strangely calm air and sky that signals big change ahead: earthquake weather. These are familiar signs to Janice Gould, a poet, a lesbian, and a mixed blood California Indian of Koyangk'auwi Maidu descent. Her sense of isolation is intense, her search for identity is relentless, and her words can take one's breath away.

Sometimes reflecting acceptance, sometimes full of anger, Gould filters her work through the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of a lesbian of Indian heritage. Over and over again, she speaks as an outsider looking in at the lives of others - through a doorway, out of a car window, or from the shambles of a broken relationship.

Showing a steady courage in the midst of this alienation, her words are also stark testimony to the struggle of an individual caught in social and emotional contexts defined by others.