WEBVTT

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Next, I'd like to introduce
Sheila Joe, a colleague

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and fellow student of mine,
for the introduction of Leslie

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Marmon Silko.

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Thank you, everyone,
for being here tonight.

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Well, since I came to
University of Arizona

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and became part of the American
Indian Studies program,

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I have been fortunate
to meet and be

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in the company of
many great authors

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like Luci Tapahonso, Franci
Washburn, Ofelia Zepeda, Winona

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LaDuke and tonight,
Leslie Marmon Silko.

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And I want to give my
appreciation to you

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for being here tonight.

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[SPEAKING DINÉ BIZAAD]

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Leslie Marmon Silko was born in
Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1948

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to Leland Howard Marmon
and Mary Virginia Leslie.

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She grew up 15 miles away at
the Laguna Pueblo in Laguna, New

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Mexico and has lived in
Tucson for the last 30 years.

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Her mixed ancestry has
influenced her work

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in myriad ways.

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Growing up on the edge of the
Laguna Pueblo Reservation,

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her earliest experiences were
positioned between cultures.

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As a child, she was educated
and became familiar with Laguna

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oral tradition of the
Laguna and Keres people

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through stories passed
down by her grandmother

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Lillie and her aunt Susie.

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Remarking in an interview
with Ellen Velie,

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"I am of mixed-breed ancestry,
but what I know is Laguna."

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Leslie Marmon Silko has deepened
her affiliation to her tribe

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through her books which draw on
Laguna myths and storytelling

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traditions.

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She has acknowledged
the influence

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of her own family's storytelling
on her method and vision.

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In 1969, she received
her Bachelor of Arts

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in English from the
University of New Mexico.

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It was in the same year that she
published her first short story

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"The Man to Send Rain Clouds"
and received the National

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Endowment for the
Humanities Discovery Grant.

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After a brief time
in law school,

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she left to pursue a
career in writing in 1971.

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In 1974, while teaching at
Navajo Community College,

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she published Laguna
Woman, a collection

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of poems filled with
the images of animals,

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landscape, and colors
that earned a poetry

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award from the Chicago Review.

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In 1977, she wrote her
first novel, Ceremony,

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which tells of a World
War II veteran's struggle

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to adjust to life back
on the reservation

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after returning
home from the. war.

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Ceremony established Silko as
an important Native American

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writer and marked her as the
first Native American woman

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novelist.

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Throughout the years, she
has won many major awards,

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including a Pushcart
Prize for Poetry,

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the MacArthur Genius
Award, the New Mexico

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Endowment for the Humanities,
Living Cultural Treasure Award

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and the Writers' Circle of the
Americas Lifetime Achievement

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Award.

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In 1981, Storyteller
was published

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which interlinked a collection
of poems and short stories.

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And the New York Times' Book
Review Pulitzer Prize winning

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novelist, N. Scott
Momaday, called Storyteller

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"a rich, many-faceted books" and
also contended, "Leslie Silko

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is very good indeed.

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She has a sharp
sense of the way,

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in which the profound and the
mundane often run together."

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In addition to being
known as a novelist,

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Leslie Marmon Silko is
an accomplished poet.

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She began writing poetry based
on the traditional stories

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and legends she learned from her
family and self-published her

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multigenre book Sacred Water--

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Narratives and Pictures in 1993.

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Her collection of
essays in Yellow Woman

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and the Beauty of the Spirit:
Essays on Native American Life

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Today published in 1996
addresses human concerns

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through a storyteller voice
that focuses on the spirit

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and voice of Native Americans,
centered on a range of topics,

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varying from national
politics to hunger.

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Through a combination
of years of research,

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thought, and efforts
connected to the justice

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for Indigenous people.

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Her second novel, Almanac of
the Dead, was published in 1991.

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The novel defines
the person's choices

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on the social and spiritual
levels between creation

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and destruction.

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Her third novel,
Gardens in the Dunes,

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directly contrasts
the traditional world

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of Native Americans with
European and American

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upper class culture.

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Her latest novel,
The Turquoise Ledge,

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takes readers along
on her daily walks

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through the arroyos and ledges
of Arizona Sonoran desert.

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It is a personal reflection
between the spiritual and

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natural world that weaves tales
from her past with observations

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from the present.

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Leslie Marmon
Silko's work provides

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a degree of explorations of
the literature, language,

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and heritage and
Native Americans

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and includes essays
on subjects ranging

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from the wisdom of our ancestors
to the racist treatment

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of Native Americans.

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She also acknowledges
the influence

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of her own family's storytelling
on her method and vision.

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She has been noted as
a major contributor

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to the Native American literacy
and artistic Renaissance which

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began in late 1960s.

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And with great
pleasure, here with us

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tonight, Leslie Marmon Silko.