Mount Saint Mary’s University Libraries celebrates the rich cultural heritage and traditions of Native Americans this November and throughout the year. This month we celebrate Native American Heritage Month and reflect upon the diverse voices within the American experience.
Today we are honoring three of those voices, Native American writers Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko and Natalie Diaz.
JOY HARJO
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Joy Harjo is of the Muscogee (Muskoke)/Creek Nation. Harjo is a poet, activist and musician. She wrote her first poem when she was eight. In 2019, she became the first Native American US Poet Laureate, and served three consecutive terms from 2019-2022. Her signature poet laureate project Living Nations, Living Words gathers the voices of contemporary Native poets to give power and voice to Native Americans. The selected poems for this anthology focus on themes of visibility, persistence, resistance and acknowledgement. Themes of ancestry, nature, love, loss, feminism and social justice, Indigenous rights and culture are all weaved into Harjo’s poetry.
To learn more about Joy Harjo’s poetry please feel free to check out these items in our collection:
Poet Warrior by
An American Sunrise by
LESLIE MARMON SILKO
Leslie Marmon Silko is a writer of Mexican, Laguna Indian and European decent. Silko is a highly acclaimed and distinguished novelist, poet and essayist. She has been honored with numerous awards including a Pushcart Prize for Poetry and Mac Arthur “Genius” Award and the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities “Living Cultural Treasure Award." Silko is widely known for her first novel, Ceremony. In Ceremony, Silko draws upon themes of storytelling, the interconnected world, being in harmony with people, the difficulties of being Native American in a white world, the environment and being spiritual beings of the planet Earth.
To learn more about Leslie Marmon Silko’s writing please feel free to check out these items in our collection:
NATALIE DIAZ
Natalie Diaz is a Native American poet born in the Fort Mojave Indian Villages in Needles, CA. Diaz identifies as Native American, Latinx, and Queer. In her poetry, she acknowledges the harm done to her people but recognizes an existence beyond the pain. Her poetry includes Postcolonial Love Poem which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She also wrote When my Brother Was An Aztec (2012). Her honors include the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry and the Narrative Poetry Prize. Diaz is a language activist and works to preserve her native tongue through the Fort Mohave Language Recovery Program. She is the Maxine and Johnathan Marshall Chair of Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University.
To learn more about Natalie Diaz’s writing please feel free to check out these items in our collection:
Postcolonial Love Poem by
Living Nations, Living Words by
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