Luci Tapahonso
Luci Tapahonso is Professor Emerita of English literature and served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation. She is the author of three children’s books and six books of poetry, including "A Radiant Curve" which received the 2008 Arizona Book Award for poetry.
Recent literary recognitions include the 2021 Ostana (Italy) Prize: an international award that honors authors who write in their mother tongue and the delivery of the keynote address at the 5th Annual Taos (N.M.) Writers Conference. Tapahonso will also receive the 2021 Distinguished Literary Achievement Award by the Western Literature Association at its 2022 conference. In 2020, she was an Artist-in-Their-Residence Fellow hosted by the Bosque Redondo Fort Sumner Memorial Museum and recorded a poem for "Living Nations, Living Words: A Map of First Peoples Poetry" for the U.S. Library of Congress. Her poems were published in "When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through" and The Dine Reader. Tapahonso’s poems were also featured on “The Slow Down with Tracy K. Smith” and “Poem-a-Day." She wrote the script for the exhibition “Creating Tradition: Innovation and Change in American Indian Art” for the American Heritage Gallery at Walt Disney World's Epcot in Florida.
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 at the University of New Zealand at Auckland and Wellington.
Appearances
Luci is scheduled to appear at the 2022 Tucson Festival of Books.
Published Works
Blue Horses Rush in: Poems and Stories Nuestras Raices (1997, ISBN 9780816517282), University of Arizona Press
Anthologies & Collections
The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature (2021, ISBN:9780816540990), University of Arizona Press