You Who Enter Here

Erika T. Wurth is Professor of Creative Writing at Western Illinois University. She is the author of one previous novel, Crazy Horse's Girlfriend; two collections of poetry, Indian Trains and A Thousand Horses Out to Sea; and a collection of short stories, Buckskin Cocaine. She is Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee and was raised outside of Denver.

"A dark story of crime, addiction, and homelessness among young Native Americans whose only escape is by way of the grave … The book is spattered with violence and its aftereffects, but not a bit seems out of place. Expertly told; a well-crafted portrait of lives lived without hope in the shadow of death." — Kirkus Reviews"…a striking, heartbreaking blend of romance and violence … Wurth's style is rare and strange. She uses common words and fairly ordinary syntax, but something about the way she arranges sentences renders the prose urgent. She communicates complex ideas in deceptively simple words, and she fearlessly subjects her characters to heartbreak and horror … a darkly splendid achievement." — Fanzine"You Who Enter Here is like nothing so much as a metal splinter, brilliant and sharp, that works its way through your veins and right into your beating heart. Erika Wurth is a beautiful writer, and You Who Enter Here is a bloody and catastrophically heartbreaking masterpiece." — Benjamin Whitmer, author of Cry Father"Get ready to experience a jaw-dropping, heart-pounding ride. You Who Enter Here escorts Erika Wurth into her own brand of Native noir, an electrifying read you won't forget. Wurth's characters haunt the underbelly of crime fiction and lure you in. Harrowing, wicked, and utterly compelling. I couldn't put this book down." — Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red"You Who Enter Here is subversive and beautiful as hell because Erika Wurth and her characters do the radical work of loving the people often deemed unworthy of love: the thugs, hood rats, gangstas, the junkies. And she loves them on their terms, for who they are in the dark, while acknowledging the complicated knots of circumstance, choice, and survival. This novel isn't operating on our ignorant views of Native People, but following the rules of its own world and people—another form of radical love. I feel wide open and moved to love harder and listen better, and I am sure, Dear Reader, you will feel the same." — Steven Dunn, author of Potted Meat