Brian Swann has published a number of collections of poetry and fiction, including Wearing the Morning Star: Native American Song-Poems and Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America. He teaches at the Cooper Union in New York City. Swann received his BA and MA from Queens' College at the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from Princeton University.

A richly diverse anthology of Native American literatures draws on the work of more than two hundred tribes across the United States and Canada and provides information on the historical and cultural contexts of the stories, songs, prayers, and orations.