In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, we’re sharing some of the Indigenous Utah authors you should know with help from the amazing Mapping Literary Utah.
Diné poet and author Tacey M. Atsitty has received numerous awards and prizes for her writing, holds degrees from Brigham Young University (where she also serves on the Advisory Board of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies), the Institute of American Indian Arts, and Cornell University. Her work has appeared in several publications. “(At) Wrist” won the Brittingham Prize in Poetry.
The award winning Diné poet and professor is daughter to Benson Tohe, a former Navajo code talker, and was the Navajo Nation Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. Her book “No Parole Today” chronicles life in an Indian boarding school through poems.
Perry is a Diné medicine woman and breath coach working diligently to preserve her native language. In her work as a childcare provider, she began making “Navajo busy books” to help teach children about Navajo language and is working with other tribes to recreate the books for other Native languages.
“Beyond the Glittering World” co-edited by Stacie Denetsosie. (Torrey House)
A Diné fiction writer and poet, Stacie currently resides in northern Utah. Her latest book, “Beyond the Glittering World,” is an anthology celebrating Indigenous futurisms through the voices of 22 storytellers. You can preorder it now through Torrey House.
The prolific Goshute storyteller was born in 1884 and often wrote about traditional narratives, weaving in reflections about the negative impact of European contact with her people. 42 audio recordings of her work are now part of the University of Utah’s Wick R. Miller Collection.
A member of the Yankton Dakota Sioux nation, Zitkála-Šá relocated to the Uintah-Ouray reservation in northeastern Utah. Along her many texts, she was also an accomplished musician and an advocate for Native American rights.
Get to know more Indigenous writers on Mapping Literary Utah.
