ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT RESCUE is the first collection by M.L. Smoker, whose work has been influenced by John Steinbeck, James Welch, and Philip Levine. Smoker composes free verse poems that focus on personal struggle and identity and engage Native American history, language, and culture. A member of the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes, poet M.L. Smoker earned a BA at Pepperdine University and an MFA at the University of Montana, where she received the Richard Hugo Memorial Scholarship.As Smoker noted in a From the Fishouse audio recording, "[B]eing a poet allows me to interact and observe and be a witness to so many things that go on in the world around us, large things that go on in our community but also things that happen in our day-to-day lives, and I'm very honored to have the chance and the opportunity to slow down occasionally and pay attention to those things that can sometimes get lost in the greater scheme of things and in our lives."
