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Luci Tapahonso

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Luci Tapahonso, Navajo, is originally from Shiprock, NM, 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, NM. She majored in English at the University of New Mexico, as an undergraduate and graduate student. She stayed on there as an Assistant Professor of English, Women's Studies and American Indian Studies for a few years. She has been an Associate Professor of English at the University of Kansas and is now Professor of English at the University of Arizona in Tucson where she teaches Poetry Writing and American Indian Literature.

Luci serves on the editorial board of wicazo sa review and was on the edtorial boards of Frontiers from 1991-1996 and of Blue Mesa Review from 1988-1992. She has been a juror for the Poetry Society of America, the Associated Writing Program Awards, and the Stan Steiner Writing Awards. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the Telluride Institute Writers Forum and has been a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission Literature Panel and the Kansas Arts Commission.

Luci writes for popular magazines as well as for academic and poetry journals, writing often for New Mexico Magazine. Among the journals where her work has been published are Diné Be Iina, Frontiers, Caliban, Sinister Wisdom, and the Beloit Poetry Journal.

In 1999, Luci was names Storyteller of the Year for her readings and performances by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers.

Luci has received a 1998 Regional Book Award from the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association, , a Southwestern Association for Indian Affairs Literature Fellowship, an Excellent Instructor Award at the University of New Mexico, a New Mexico Eminent Scholar Award from the New Mexico Commission of Higher Education, the Hall Center Creative Fellowship Award, a Southwest Book Award for Saánii Dahataal from the Border Regional Library Association, an Honorable Mention in the American Book Awards in 1983 for Seasonal Woman, and the 1995 Frost Place Poet-In-Residence.

She has also been named a Woman of Distinction by the American Girl Scout Council in 1996, Influential Professor by the Lady Jayhawks Faculty Recognition panel in 1994, an Outstanding Native American Woman by the City of Sacramento in 1993, the Grand Marshal of the Northern Navajo Nation Fair Parade in Shiprock in 1992, and one of the Top Women of the Navajo Nation by Maazo Magazine.

Luci serves her community at all levels, from her local community and university department to the national level. She has served on numerous English Department committees and reads her poetry in classes. She serves on University-wide committees, boards and task forces; she gives poetry readings in the local community and speaks to local groups. She has served on the board of Habitat for Humanity and the United Way Allocations Panel . On the state level, Luci has served on the state Art Commissions, delivered Commencement Addresses at high schools on the Navajo Reservation and in Santa Fe and judged the Miss Navajo Nation and Miss Indian New Mexico Pageants. On the national level, Luci serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Museum of the American Indian, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Indian Law Resource Center, as a Review Consultant for the Cultural Diversity Development Division of American College Testing and reviews manuscripts for the University of Oklahoma Press, the University of Arizona Press, the University of Nebraska Press, and Cornell University Press. She is also a consultant to American Playhouse for the movie The Lady Chieftans. She was on the Planning Committee for the Returning the Gift Writers Festival from 1989-1992, worked in collaboration with David Noble, Rich Rollins and Krista Elrick on the Phoenix Art Commission Project Hohokamki: The Pueblo Grande Project from 1990-1992

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Luci Tapahonso

Luci Tapahonso

Books from Luci Tapahonso

Blue Horses Rush In: Poems and Stories

Sáanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing: Poems and Stories

A Radiant Curve: Poems and Stories

A Breeze Swept Through: Poetry

Navajo ABC: A Diné Alphabet Book

Songs of Shiprock Fair

Here, Now, and Always: Voices of the First Peoples of the Southwest

Seasonal Woman

Real Things: An Anthology of Popular Culture in American Poetry

A Radiant Curve: Poems and Stories (Sun Tracks Book 64)

Blue Horses Rush In: Poems and Stories (Sun Tracks Book 34)