Award Winning Navajo Poet to Visit Thomas College Luci Tapahonso Will Offer Public Poetry Reading/Book Signing

WATERVILLE, Feb. 26 - Thomas College will welcome award-winning poet Luci Tapahonso to campus on March 25. Tapahonso is an internationally-known poet whose work has earned her many awards and recognitions and made her a highly sought-after writer, reviewer, reader and speaker.

Tapahonso's 1993 collection, Saanii Dahataal (The Women are Singing), written in Dine and English, was the first to gain her an international reputation, a reputation then cemented by 1997's Blue Horses Rush In. She has published several collections, as well as many individual poems which have been anthologized in others' collections, activist literature and magazines. She writes for popular magazines as well as for academic and poetry journals. She has appeared on many NPR, PBS, CBS, ABC and local programs. Her work, also available on recordings, has been included in theatre productions and was read by William Shatner at the World of Poetry Convention in Las Vegas.

Tapahonso serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Museum of the American Indian, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, and served on the Board of Directors of the American Indian Law Resource Center. She has been 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.

In addition to the 2006 Native Writers Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, Tapahonso was also awarded the Wordcraft Circle Storyteller of the Year (Readings/Performance) Award in 1999, the Award for Best Poetry from the Mountains and Plain's Booksellers Association in 1998 and the New Mexico Eminent Scholar award. She was named a Woman of Distinction by the American Girl Scout Council in 1996 and in 1995 she was awarded the Resident Poet fellowship at The Frost Place, historic homestead of the poet Robert Frost in Franconia, New Hampshire.

Unlike the writing of most Native American writers, Tapahonso's writing, which includes original songs and chants designed for performance, is a translation from original work she has created in her tribe's native tongue, Dine. Because of this translation, her English work is strongly rhythmic and uses syntactical structures not often seen in English language poetry. Her writing is frequently mystical and places much importance on the idea of the feminine as a source of power and balance in the world.

Born on the Navajo reservation, to Eugene Tapahonso (Bitter Water clan), and Lucille Tapahonso, (Salt Water clan), Tapahonso studied at the University of New Mexico. In 1982, Tapahonso gained her MA, and taught, first at the University of New Mexico and later at the University of Kansas. Currently, at the University of Arizona, she teaches Poetry Writing and American Indian Literature.

Tapahonso will visit Thomas College on March 25 and will offer a book signing and reception at 5 p.m. in the Laurette Ayotte Auditorium lobby and a public poetry reading at 6 p.m. in the Laurette Ayotte Auditorium on the College's campus at 180 West River Road in Waterville. To set up an interview with Tapahonso via phone prior to her arrival or an interview or reading with her during her visit, please contact Katie Greenlaw, Director of Public and Alumni Relations at Thomas College at greenlawk@thomas.edu or 207-859-1319.

Founded in 1894, Thomas College is a private college that offers baccalaureate and master's degrees, and provides higher education to many who might not otherwise attend college, particularly first generation college students from Maine. The College prepares undergraduate and graduate students for careers in business, technology, education, liberal arts and criminal justice. Thomas is the only college in the nation that guarantees its graduates employment within six months of graduation. For more information, please visit www.thomas.edu.

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