Biography articles about luci tapahonso

Luci Tapahonso is Professor Emerita of English Literature (University of New Mexico 2016) and served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation.  She is a recipient of a 2018 Native Arts and Culture Foundation Artist Fellowship. 

She is the author of three children’s books and six books of poetry including A Radiant Curve. She recently served as a judge for Poetry Out Loud, the New Mexico High School Poetry Competition and was selected as “2016 Best of the City- Our City and State’s Prolific Authors,” by Albuquerque the Magazine. Professor Tapahonso has delivered keynote addresses at several conferences and institutions including Harvard University, Gallup Central High School, Kenyon College, Institute of American Indian Arts, the Tbisili International Literature Festival in the Republic of Georgia and “Creativity Week” at the University of New Zealand at Auckland and Wellington.

She recently completed a script for an exhibition called “Creating Tradition: Innovation and Change in American Indian Art” for the American Heritage Gallery at Walt Disney World’s Epcot and is completing the manuscript for her next book.

Luci Tapahonso lives in Santa Fe with her husband, Dr. Robert Martin, who is president of the Institute of American Indian Arts.

PERSONAL: Surname is pronounced "Top-pa-honso"; born 1953, in Shiprock, NM; daughter of Eugene and Lucille (Deschenne) Tapahonso; married Earl Ortiz (an artist; divorced, 1987); married Bob G. Martin, 1989; children: (first marriage) Lori Tazbah, Misty Dawn, (stepchildren) Robert Derek, Jonathan Allan, Amber Kristine. Education: Participated in a training program for investigative journalism at the National Indian Youth Council; University of New Mexico, B.A., 1980, M.A., 1983.

ADDRESSES: Office—P.O. Box 210076, Harvill 430, Tucson, AZ 85721-0076. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer and poet. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, assistant professor of English, 1987-89; University of Kansas, Lawrence, assistant professor, 1990-94, associate professor of English, 1994-99; University of Arizona, Tucson, professor of American Indian Studies and English, 1999—. Served on the board of directors of the Phoenix Indian Center, 1974; member of New Mexico Arts Commission Literature Panel, 1984-86, steering committee of Returning the Gift Writers Festival, 1989-92; Kansas Arts Commission Literature Panel, 1990; Phoenix Arts Commission, 1990-92; Telluride Institute Writers Forum Advisory Board, 1992—; commissioner of Kansas Arts Commission, 1992-96; member of editorial review boards of Blue Mesa Review, 1988-92, Frontiers, 1991-96, and wicazo sa review.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association, Poets and Writers, Inc., Association of American Indian and Alaska Native Professors, Habitat for Humanity (member of board of directors, 1990-94), New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities, Spooner Museum of Anthropology (member of advisory board, 1990-92), American Indian Law Resource Center (member of board of directors, 1993—).

AWARDS, HONORS: Southwestern Association Indian Affairs Literature fellowship, 1981; honorable mention, American Book Awards, 1983, for Seasonal Woman; Woman of Distinction, American Girl Scouts Counci

Navaho poet laureate

Luci Tapahonso (born November 8, 1953) is a Navajopoet and a lecturer in Native American Studies. She is the first poet laureate of the Navajo Nation, succeeded by Laura Tohe.

Early life and education

Tapahonso was born on the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico to Eugene Tapahonso Sr. and Lucille Deschenne Tapahonso. English was not spoken on the family farm, and Tapahonso learned it as a second tongue after her native Navajo. Following schooling at Navajo Methodist School in Farmington, New Mexico, she attended Shiprock High School and graduated in 1971. She embarked on a career as a journalist and investigative reporter before beginning her studies at the University of New Mexico in 1976. There she first met the novelist and poet Leslie Marmon Silko, who was a faculty member and who proved to be an important influence on Tapahonso's early writing. She initially intended to study journalism at New Mexico, but Silko convinced her to change her major to creative writing. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1980. In 1983, Tapahonso gained her MA in Creative Writing, and she proceeded to teach, first at New Mexico and later at the University of Kansas, the University of Arizona, and the University of New Mexico.

Writings

Silko helped Tapahonso publish her first story, "The Snake Man", in 1978. Her first collection of poetry, One More Shiprock Night (written when she was an undergraduate), was published in 1981, but did not make much impact. Following Silko's lead, Tapahonso's early work is often mystical and places much importance on the idea of the feminine as a source of power and balance in the world. She also frequently uses her family and childhood friends in her poetry. Several more collections followed, as well as many individual poem