by Joseph Lee
Atria/One World Publishers
7/15/2025, hardcover
SKU: 9781668087251
From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal exploration of Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world.
Before Martha's Vineyard became one of the most iconic vacation destinations in the country, it was home to the Wampanoag people. Today, as tourists flock to the idyllic beaches, the island has become increasingly unaffordable for tribal members, with nearly three-quarters now living off-island. Growing up Aquinnah Wampanoag, journalist Joseph Lee grappled with what this situation meant for his tribe, how the community can continue to grow, and more broadly, what it means to be Indigenous.
In Nothing More of This Land, Lee weaves his own story and that of his family into a panoramic narrative of Indigenous life around the world. He takes us from the beaches of Martha's Vineyard to the icy Alaskan tundra, the smoky forests of Northern California to the halls of the United Nations, and beyond. Along the way he meets activists fighting to protect their land, families clashing with their own tribal leaders, and communities working to reclaim tradition.
Together, these stories reject stereotypes to show the diversity of Indigenous people today and chart a way past the stubborn legacy of colonialism.
Reviews:
"A searching and timely exploration of indigeneity and its many interpretations." -- Kirkus (starred review)
"A potent exploration of what it means to be Indigenous. . . . A deft combination of affective memoir and keen journalism, this profound examination on identity and place impresses." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"With lucid intimacy, Lee traces the story of the Aquinnah Wampanoag across centuries and shorelines, anchoring sweeping histories in the particular texture of lived experience. The past is not background here--it presses forward, unresolved. At its core, this is a book about how to stay in relationship with a land, a people, and a culture that colonialism has scattered and strained. What begins as personal memoir opens into a broader reckoning with Indigenous identity in motion. Lee writes not to restore some lost purity, but to chart a map forward--one that embraces contradiction, survival, and the quiet force of continuity. Few books manage to feel this intimate and this expansive, this tender and this unflinching. It's not just beautifully told--it's deeply earned." -- Morgan Talty, national bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit
"Nothing More Of This Land is a stark, beautifully rendered reminder of all that had to occur for the happening of our existences to take place, and all who lived and fought against their own erasure to maintain a semblance of a legacy. This is a profound, and moving book, a powerful indictment of the colonial mindset that firmly balances an ode to people, to place, to remaining." -- Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There's Always This Year
About the Author:
Joseph Lee is an Aquinnah Wampanoag writer based in New York City. He has an MFA from Columbia University and teaches creative writing at Mercy University. His writing has been published in The Guardian, BuzzFeed News, Vox, Electric Literature, High Country News, and more. He was a Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop and a Senior Indigenous Affairs Fellow at Grist. He has won multiple awards from the Indigenous Journalists Association for environmental coverage, health coverage, and beat reporting and this book was awarded a 2024 Silvers Grant for Work in Progress.