Great Reads from Great Places: Adults
Beginning in 2022, the Affiliated Centers for the Book began selecting a “Great Reads from Great Places” adult title as a companion to our books for young readers.
Nothing More of This Land by Joseph Lee
About the Book
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.
Photo Credit: Aslan Chalom
Meet 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 was awarded a 2024 Silvers Grant for Work in Progress. Follow him on X at @JosephVLee and on Instagram at @Joseph.V.Lee.
Editorial Reviews
FINALIST FOR THE 2026 PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION
A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2025 • AN NPR BOOKS WE LOVE MOST PICK • A TRIBAL COLLEGE BEST NATIVE STUDIES BOOK OF 2025
“Intimate and lively… Lee’s reflections demand one contemplate not only the governments in Indian Country but the troubled experiment in government that is the United States of America.” –New York Times
“Lee offers readers a valuable understanding of the many forms that 21st-century Indigenous life can take and how they might evolve in the future. . . .And in these pages, he’s crafted a must-read for anyone who seeks to know the island with depth that extends well beyond its superficial myths.” –Boston Globe
“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)
"Nothing More of This Land is written with scrupulous attention to nuance and ambiguity. It is an exploration of a complex heritage that is self-searching, deeply intelligent and honest. But it is also a book about America, the public realm, what an Indigenous identity means in this country, and how this has molded the life of Joseph Lee, who is a brilliant and sensitive chronicler of his own destiny and that of his community." –Colm Tóibín, bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island
"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, bestselling author of There's Always This Year
“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, bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit
“A wise meditation on belonging, Lee offers the reader a global perspective on what it means to be Indigenous. Lee’s desire for reciprocity and community will move readers to think about our planetary future. A journalistic feat, heartfelt, well-researched, and vital." –Deborah Jackson Taffa, author of National Book Award finalist Whiskey Tender
More Massachusetts Adult Great Reads
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Mercy Street,
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2023
Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau,
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2024
Rough Sleepers,
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2025
North Woods,
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