Luci Tapahonso

Luci Tapahonso (born November 8, 1953) is a Navajo poet and a lecturer in Native American Studies. She is the first and current poet laureate of the Navajo Nation.

Early life and education

Born on the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico to Eugene Tapahonso Sr. (Tódichʼíinii or Bitterwater Clan) and Lucille Deschenne Tapahonso (Áshįįhí or Saltwater Clan), Luci Tapahonso was raised in a traditional way along with 11 siblings. English was not spoken on the family farm, and Tapahonso learned it as a second tongue after her native Navajo. Following schooling at Navajo Methodist School in Farmington, New Mexico, she attended Shiprock High School and graduated in 1971. She embarked on a career as a journalist and investigative reporter before beginning her studies at the University of New Mexico in 1976. There she first met the novelist and poet Leslie Marmon Silko, who was a faculty member and who proved to be an important influence on Tapahonso's early writing. She initially intended to study journalism at New Mexico, but Silko convinced her to change her major to creative writing. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1980. In 1983, Tapahonso gained her MA in Creative Writing, and she has gone on to teach, first at New Mexico and later at the University of Kansas and now at the University of Arizona.