Joy Harjo - US' First Native American Poet Laureate, An American Sunrise

 OFFSITE: Please note this event will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Native American Art (MoCNA).

Joy Harjo, the first Native American United States Poet Laureate, will perform and read from her new publication, An American Sunrise, as well as from a selection of her other works, Conflict Resolution, Crazy Brave and more. Harjo’s publications will be on sale at the event. 

Joy Harjo, poet, musician, and author, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. Her seven books of poetry, which include such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, and She Had Some Horses, have garnered many awards. These include the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas; and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.

Joy was born Joy Foster on May 9, 1951 and took her paternal grandmother’s surname when she enrolled in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late twentieth century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA at the University of Iowa in its Creative Writing Program.

In addition to writing books and other publications, Harjo has taught in numerous United States universities, performed at poetry readings and music events, and released five albums of her original music. Her books include Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015), Crazy Brave (2012), and How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975–2002 (2004). She was a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. In 2019, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

To hear an interview with Joy on All Things Considered, please click here