“Luci Tapahonso, inaugural poet laureate of the Navajo Nation and professor of English and director of creative writing at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, has published several collections of poetry, including Saánii Dahataal (The Women are Singing), written in Navajo and English. Tapahonso is originally from Shiprock, New Mexico, where she grew up in a family of 11 children. Navajo was her first language but she learned English at home before starting school at the Navajo Methodist Mission in Farmington, New Mexico. She majored in English at the University of New Mexico, as an undergraduate and graduate student. Tapahonso stayed on there as an assistant professor of English, women’s studies, and American Indian studies for a few years. Prior to returning to the University of New Mexico she was an associate professor of English at the University of Kansas and a lecturer in English and professor in American Indian studies at the University of Arizona.”
To read the article, please visit: An Afternoon with the Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation