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Six Individual Writers: 

This page will provide a short biographical sketch, a bibliography, and point to works in Davis Library and/or Perkins Library.

Paula Gunn Allen

Louise Erdrich

Joy Harjo

Linda Hogan

Leslie Marmon Silko

Luci Tapahonso

Ownership is indicated by the call numbers; Duke Libraries call numbers are the Dewey decimal numbers, and UNC-CH call numbers are Library of Congress call numbers.  Biographical material is taken largely from Bataille and Lisa’s Native American Women:  A Biographical Dictionary. 

 

 

Allen, Paula Gunn

Perhaps best known as a critic and collector of anthologies, Paula Gunn Allen is a well-respected writer of fiction and poetry as well.  She is, almost without question, the preeminent Native American scholar and critic.  And she has created course outlines for teaching Native American literature as well. Born in Cubero, New Mexico, in 1939, to a Lebanese-American father and a Laguna-Sioux-Scottish mother, Allen is herself a mother to three children.  She earned her BA in 1966 and MFA in 1968 at Oregon, and her PhD in American Studies from the University of New Mexico in 1975.  Since then, Allen has taught at several colleges and universities, including now UCLA.  She has won many fellowships and awards for her writing, which includes seven volumes of poetry, a novel, and “a huge body of critical essays.”  Image from http://www.uoregon.edu/~casdev/alumni/0011fellows.html; 2 April 2002.   

A Cannon Between My Knees.  New York:  Strawberry Press, 1981.  811.54 A428 C226 1981(Duke)

Grandmothers of the Light:  A Medicine Woman’s Sourcebook.  Boston:  Beacon Press, 1991.  398.208997 A428 G754 1991(Duke); E98.W8 A439 1991(UNC)

Off the Reservation:  Reflections on Boundary-Busting Border-Crossing Loose Canons.  Boston:  Beacon Press, 1998. 814.54 A428 O32 1998(Duke); PS3551.L397 O38 1998(UNC) (Both libraries also offer access to this title as an electronic book.)

The Sacred Hoop:  Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Tradition.  Boston:  Beacon Press, 1986.  970.00497 A428 S123 1986(Duke); E98.W8 A44 1986(UNC)

Shadow Country.  Los Angeles:  American Indian Studies Center, U of California, 1982.  PS3661.L397 S53 1982(UNC)

Skin and Bones:  Poems 1979-87.  Albuquerque, NM:  West End Press, 1988.  811.54 A428 S628 1988(Duke)

Song of the Turtle:  American Indian Literature, 1974-1994.  New York:  Ballantine Books, 1996.  PS508.I5 S62 1996(UNC)

Spider Woman’s Granddaughters:  Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women.  Boston:  Beacon  Press, 1989.  810.809287 S754 1989(Duke); PS508.I5 S64 1989(UNC)

Studies in American Indian Literature:  Critical Essays and Course Designs.  New York:  Modern Language Association, 1983. 810.9897 S933 1983(Duke); PS153.I52 S8 1983(UNC)

Voice of the Turtle:  American Indian Literature, 1900-1970.  New York:  Ballantine Books, 1994.  PS508.I5 V64 1994(UNC)

The Woman Who Owned the Shadows.  San Francisco:  Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1983.  813.54 A428 W872 1983(Duke); PS3551.L397 W6 1983(UNC)

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Erdrich, Louise

Born in Little Falls, Minnesota in 1954, Louise Erdrich was raised in Wahpeton, North Dakota.  She is of Chippewa and German descent and is a member of the Turtle Mountain band of the Chippewa.  A 1976 graduate of Dartmouth, Erdrich worked in the Poetry in the Schools Program for the North Dakota Council on the Arts in 1977 and 1978.  She accepted a position to teach composition and creative writing at Johns Hopkins in 1978, and completed her MA there in 1979.  Erdrich then moved to Boston to become editor of the Boston Indian Council newspaper, The Circle.  In 1980, she became a MacDowell Colony fellow, and in 1981, a fellow of the Yaddo Colony.  In 1982, she was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship.  Image from www.turtle-island.com/rolemodels/html; 2 April 2002 

Erdrich has won numerous awards for her writing, particularly her novels Love Medicine and The Beet Queen.  She has also published collections of poetry, essays, a travel book, book reviews, and short fiction.  Erdrich was married to Michael Dorris and with him co-wrote Crown of Columbus and Route Two.

The Antelope Wife.  New York:  HarperCollins, 1998.  813.54 E66 A627 1998(Duke); PS3555.R42 A8 1998 (UNC)

Baptism of Desire.  Hew York:  Harper & Row, 1989.  PS3555.R42 B3 1989(UNC)

The Beet Queen.  New York:  Henry Holt, 1986.  813.54 E66 B415 1986(Duke); PS3555.R42 B4 1986(UNC)

The Bingo Palace.  New York:  HarperCollins, 1994.  813.54 E66 B613 1994(Duke); PS3555.R42 B5 1994(UNC)

The Birchbark House.  New York:  Hyperion Books for Children, 1999.  SILS Lib: J Erdrich (UNC)

The Blue Jay’s Dance:  A Birth Year.  New York:  HarperCollins, 1995.  813.54 E66 B698 1995(Duke); PS3555.R42 Z464 1995(UNC)

Grandmother’s Pigeon.  New York:  Hyperion, 1996.

Imagination.  Westerville, OH:  Merrill, 1981.

Jacklight.  New York:  Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1984.  811.54 E66 J12 1990(Duke); PS3555.R42 J3 1984(UNC)

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.  New York:  HarperCollins, 2001.  813.54 E66 L349 2001(Duke); PS3555.R42  L37 2001(UNC)

Love Medicine.  New York:  Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984.  New and enl. Ed., New York:  HarperPerennial, 1993.  813.54 E66 L897 2001 and 1984(Duke); PS3555.R42 L6 1984 and L6 1993(UNC)

Tales of Burning Love.  New York:  HarperCollins, 1996.  813.54 E66 T143 1996(Duke); PS3555.R42 T3 1996(UNC)

Tracks.  New York:  Henry Holt, 1988.  813.54 E66 T759 1988(Duke); PS2555.R42 T73 1988 (UNC)

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Harjo, Joy

The mother of Phil Dayn and Misty Dawn, Joy Harjo was born in 1951 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Harjo attended high school at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and would return there after her post-secondary education to teach for a while.  She received her BA in 1976 from the University of New Mexico and her MFA from the University of Iowa in 1978.  In addition to IAIA, she taught at Arizona State University, the University of Colorado, and the University of Arizona before accepting a position at the University of New Mexico in 1991.  Harjo not only writes poetry and scripts, makes films, and plays “tribal-jazz-reggae” in a band; she also serves on several boards, including the policy panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, and is the poetry editor for High Plains Literary Review.  Image from www.ou.edu/powerofideas/pastguests.html; 2 April 2002.

Fishing.  Browerville, MN:  Ox Head, 1992.

In Mad Love and War.  Middletown, CT:  Wesleyan University Press, 1990.  811.54 H282 M297 2000(Duke) ; PS3558.A62423 I6 1990(UNC)

The Last Song.  Las Cruces, NM:  Puerto del Sol Press, 1975.

A Map to the Next World.  New York:  W.W. Norton, 2000.   PS3558.A62423 M36 2000(UNC)

Secrets from the Center of the World.  Sun Tracks series, vol. 17.  Tucson:  U of Arizona P, 1989.  PS501.S85 vol. 17(UNC)

She Had Some Horses.  New York:  Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1983.  811.54 H282 S539 1997(Duke) PS3558.A62423 S5 1983(UNC)

What Moon Drove Me to This.  New York:  I. Reed, 1979 811.54 H282 W555 1979(Duke)

The Woman Who Fell from the Sky.  New York:  Norton, 1994 811.54 H282 W872 1994(Duke)

(with Gloria Bird, eds.)  Reinventing the Enemy’s Language:  Contemporary Native Women’s Writing of North America.  New York:  W.W. Norton, 1997.  810.809287 R374 1997(Duke) ; PS508.I5 R38 1997(UNC)

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Hogan, Linda

Linda Hogan is a professor of Native American and American Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  She was born in Denver in 1947 and is the mother of two adopted daughters, Sandra Dawn Protector and Tanya Thunder Horse.  Hogan received her MA in English and creative writing in 1978 from the University of Colorado, and taught as poet-in-the-schools in Colorado and Oklahoma, at Colorado College, and at the University of Minnesota.  She has received a Newberry Library fellowship and a Yaddo Colony fellowship, among other awards.  Linda Hogan is also active in antinuclear and pacifist movements.  Image from http://www.furman.edu/~cdouglas/oklahoma/hogan.html; 2 April 2002.

The Book of Medicines.  Minneapolis, MN:  Coffee House Press, 1993.  813.54 H714 B724 1993(Duke)

Calling Myself Home.  Greenfield Center, NY:  Greenfield Review Press, 1979.  811.54 H714 C161 1978(Duke); PS3558.O34726 C3(UNC)

Daughters, I Love You.  Denver, CO:  Loretto Heights College, 1981.

Dwellings:  Reflections on the Natural World.  New York:  W.W. Norton, 1995.  BD581.H573 1995(UNC) 

Eclipse.  Los Angeles:  UCLA American Indian Studies Center Press, 1983.   PS3558.O34726 E25 1983(UNC)

From Women’s Experience to Feminist Theory.  Sheffield, UK:  Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.

Mean Spirit.  New York:  Atheneum, 1990.  813.54 H714 M483 1990(Duke); PS3558.O34726 M4 1990(UNC)

Power.  New York:  W.W. Norton, 1998.  813.54 H714 P887 1998(Duke); PS3558.O34726 P6 1998(UNC)

Red Clay:  Poems and Stories.  Greenfield Center, NY:  Greenfield Review Press, 1991.

Savings:  Poems.  Minneapolis, MN:  Coffee House Press, 1988.  811.54 H714 S267 1988(Duke); PS3558.O34726 S28 1988(UNC)

Seeing Through the Sun.  Amherst:  U of Massachusetts P, 1985.  PS3558.O34726 S4 1985(UNC)

Solar Storms.  New York:  Scribners, 1995.  813.54 H714 S684 1996(Duke); PS3558.O34726 S58 1995(UNC)

The Woman Who Watches Over the World:  A Native Memoir.  New York:  Norton, 2001.  818.5409 H714 W872 2001(Duke); PS3558.O34726 Z47 2001(UNC)

(with Charles Colbert Henderson).  That Horse.  Acoma, NM:  Acoma Press, 1985.

(with Judith McDaniel and Carol Bruchac, eds.)  The Stories We Hold Secret.  Greenfield Center, NY:  Greenfield Review Press, 1986.  PS647.W6 S76 1986(UNC)

(with Brenda Peterson, eds.).  The Sweet Breathing of Plants:  Women Writing on the Green World.  New York:  North Point Press, 2001.  635.9 S974 2001(Duke)

(with Brenda Peterson and Deena Metzger, eds.) Intimate Nature:  The Bond Between Women and Animals.  New York:  Ballantine, 1999.  810.80353 I61 1999(Duke); PS509.W62 I58 1998(UNC)

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Silko, Leslie Marmon

One of the premier American writers of the twentieth century, Leslie Silko describes herself as having Indian-white-Mexican ancestry.  She was born in 1948, in Laguna Pueblo, to Lee H. and Virginia Marmon.  Silko received her BA in 1969 from the University of New Mexico; that same year she published her first short story “The Man to Send Rain Clouds.”  She attended law school at UNM for a time, then withdrew to write.  Silko has received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a MacArthur Foundation award.  Her novels, short stories, poetry, and essays are necessary reading for anyone interested in studying Native American literature.  In particular, Ceremony and Almanac of the Dead are famous and often-cited.  Image from www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/ fall2000/conv_silko.html; photo credit Nancy Crampton; site visited 2 April 2002.

 

Almanac of the Dead.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1991.  813.54 S583 A445 1991(Duke); PS3569.I44 A79 1991(UNC)

Ceremony.  New York:  Viking Press, 1977.  813.54 S583 C(Duke); PS3569.I44 C4(UNC)

The Delicacy and Strength of Lace:  Letters Between Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright.  Saint Paul, MN:  Greywolf Press, 1986.  811.54 S583 D353 1986(Duke); PS3569.I44 Z49 1986(UNC)

Gardens in the Dunes.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1999.  813.54 S583 G628 1999(Duke); PS3569.I44 G37 1999(UNC)

Laguna Woman.  Greenfield Center, NY:  Greenfield Review Press, 1974.

Sacred Water.  Tucson:  Flood Plain Press, 1993.

Storyteller.  New York:  Seaver, 1981.  813.54 S583 S888 1981(Duke); PS3569.I44 S8(UNC)

Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit:  Essays on Native American Life Today.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1996.  970.00497 D583 Y43 1996(Duke); E59.P45 S55 1996(UNC)

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Tapahonso, Luci

Born in Shiprock, New Mexico, in 1951, Luci Tapahonso is best known for her poetry, although she has fine short stories.  She has her BA and MA from the University of New Mexico, and has taught there as well as University of Nebraska.  She is currently on the faculty at the University of Arizona.  The landscape, its places and people, and hozho, living in beauty, figure strongly into Tapahonso’s verse.  She has received several awards and served on the editorial boards of the Blue Mesa Review, Frontiers, and the wicazo-sa review.  Image from www.flagstaffcentral.com/bookfest/authors2001/tapahonso.htm; 2 April 2002. 

Bah’s Baby Brother Is Born.  Washington, DC:  National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, 1994.

Blue Horses Rush In:  Poems and Stories.  Tucson:  U of Arizona P, 1997.  810.80054 T172 B658 1997(Duke); PS501.S85 vol. 34(UNC)

A Breeze Swept Through.  Albuquerque:  West End Press, 1987.  PS3570.A567 B73 1987(UNC)

Navajo ABC:  A Dine Alphabet Book.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1995.

One More Shiprock Night.  San Antonio:  Tejas Art, 1981.

Saanii Dahataal:  The Women Are Singing.  Tucson:  U of Arizona P, 1993.  PS501.S85 vol. 23(UNC)

Seasonal Woman.  Santa Fe:  Tooth of Time, 1982.

Songs of Shiprock Fair.  Walnut, CA:  Kiva Publishing, 1999.

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