Leslie Marmon Silko

Leslie Marmon Silko. Courtesy University Press of Mississippi.

Leslie Marmon Silko (born March 5, 1948) is a Native American poet and novelist of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, a key figure in the 2nd wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance.

Life

Silko was born Leslie Marmon in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is 1/4 Laguna Pueblo Native American (a Keres speaking tribe), the rest of her ancestry being European American and Mexican American. Her father is Lee Marmon, a notable photographer. She grew up on the edge of pueblo society both literally – her family’s house was at the edge of the reservation – and figuratively, not being allowed to participate in various rituals or join many of the pueblo societies. However, she was educated by her grandmother and aunts in the traditional storie of the Laguna people, and as a result always identified most strongly with the native part of her ancestry, saying in an interview with Alan Velie that "I am of mixed-breed ancestry, but what I know is Laguna".

She was educated at Catholic school in Albuquerque, and went on to receive a B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1969.

In 1966, she married Richard C. Chapman, and together, they had a son, Robert Chapman. However the marriage was unsuccessful and they divorced in 1969. A subsequent marriage to John Silko in 1971 also ended in divorce.

Writing

Literary relevance and themes

Throughout her career as a writer and teacher, she has remained grounded in the history-filled landscape of the Laguna Pueblo. Her experiences in the culture have fueled an interest to preserve cultural traditions and understand the impact of the past on contemporary life. A well-known novelist and poet, Silko's career has been characterized by making people aware of ingrain racism and white cultural imperialism, and a commitment to support women's issues. Her novels have many characters who attempt what some perceive a simple yet uneasy return to balance Native American traditions survivalism with the violence of modern America. The clash of civilizations is a continuing theme in the modern Southwest and of the difficult search for balance that the region’s inhabitants encounter.

Her literary contributions are particularly importantTemplate:According to whom because they open up the Anglo-European prevailing definitions of the American literary tradition to accommodate the often underrepresented traditions, priorities, and ideas about identity that in a general way characterize many American Indian cultures and in a more specific way form the bedrock of Silko's Laguna heritage and experience.

Early literary work

A short story written by Silko while still at school, "The Man To Send Rain Clouds", was published and quickly garnered a great deal of praise, winning its author a National Endowment for the Humanities Discovery Grant. The story is still frequently anthologised today. During the period 1968-1974, Silko wrote and published more short stories and many poems, most of which were later collected in her book Laguna Woman.

Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony was first published in 1977 to rave reviews, and it is difficult even to this day to find a critical appreciation of the book that is not positive. It remains the Native American novel most often set on college and university syllabuses, and one of the few individual works by any Native author to have received book-length critical assessments.

The novel tells the story of Tayo, a mixed-blood veteran home from fighting against Japan in World War II. Returning to the poverty-stricken reservation at Laguna, Tayo is recovering from shell-shock and is haunted with memories of his cousin, who died in the conflict. Seeking an escape from his pain, Tayo initially takes refuge in alcoholism. Gradually, helped by the mixed-blood shaman Betonie, he comes to a greater understanding of the world and his own place within it.

Ceremony has been called a Grail fiction, in that the hero overcomes a series of challenges to reach a specified goal. The skill of the writer is evident in the way that it is also a book deeply rooted in traditional stories (for instance, there are several retellings of old stories). Fellow Pueblo poet Paula Gunn Allen criticised the book on this account, saying that Silko was divulging tribal secrets that she did not have the right to reveal (See Allen, Paula Gunn. "Special Problems in Teaching Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony." American Indian Quarterly (Fall 1990): 379-86.)

In an America full of damaged Vietnam veterans, the book's message of healing and reconciliation between races and people made it both an immediate and a long-term success. It was largely on the strength of this work that critic Alan Velie named Silko one of his Four Native American Literary Masters, along with N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor and James Welch.

Ceremony remains a literary work featured on college and university syllabi, and among the few individual works by any Native American author to have received book-length critical inquiry.

Storyteller

In 1981, Silko released Storyteller, a collection of poems and short stories that incorporated creative writing, mythology, and autobiography, which garnered favorable reception as it followed in much the same poetic form as the novel Ceremony.

Delicacy and Strength of Lace

In 1986, Delicacy and Strength of Lace was released. The book is a collected volume of correspondence between Silko and her friend James Wright whom she met following the publication of Ceremony. The work was edited by Wright's wife, Ann Wright, and released after Wright's death in March 1980.

Almanac of the Dead

Almanac of the Dead was published in 1991. This work took Silko 10 years to complete, and received mixed reviews. The vision of the book stretched over both American continents and included Chiapas revolutionaries the Zapatista Army of National Liberation as just a small part of the pantheon of characters. The theme of the novel, like Ceremony, focuses on the conflict between Anglo-Americans and Native Americans.

The work was heavily criticised for its attitude towards homosexuality as Silko pens many of the major villains in the novel as gay, and for an improper interpretation and incorporation of the Popol Vuh. Almanac of the Dead has not achieved the same mainstream success as its predecessor.

Sacred Water

In June 1993, Silko published a limited run of Sacred Water under Flood Plain Press, a self-printing venture by Silko. Each copy of Sacred Water is handmade by Silko using her personal typewriter combining written text set next to poignant photographs taken by the author.

Sacred Water is composed of autobiographical prose, poetry and pueblo mythology focusing on the importance and centrality of water to life.

Silko issued a second printing of Sacred Water in 1994 in order to make the work more accessible to students and academics although it was limited. This edition used printing methods suited for a greater production distribution.

Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit

Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American life today was published by Simon & Schuster in March 1997.

The work is a collection of short stories on various topics; including an autobiographical essay of her childhood at Laguna Pueblo and the racism she faced as a mixed blood person; stark criticism directed at President Bill Clinton regarding his immigration policies; and praise for the development of and lamentation for the loss of the Aztec and Maya codices, along with commentary on Pueblo mythology.

As a reviewer notes, Silko "encompass traditional storytelling, discussions of the power of words to the Pueblo, reminiscences on photography, frightening tales of the U.S. border patrol, historical explanations of the Mayan codices, and socio-political commentary on the relationship of the U.S. government to various nations, including the Pueblo."

Rain

In 1997, Silko ran a limited number of handmade books through Flood Plain Press. Like Sacred Water, Rain was again a combination of short autobiographical prose and poetry inset with her photographs. The short volume focused on the importance of rain to personal and spiritual survival in the Southwest.

Garden In The Dunes

Gardens in the Dunes was published in 1999. The work weaves together themes of feminism, slavery, conquest and botany, while following the story of a young girl named Indigo from the fictional "Sand Lizard People" in the Arizona Territory and her European travels as a summer companion to an affluent White woman named Hattie.

The story is set against the back drop of the enforcement of Indian boarding schools, the California Gold Rush and the rise of the Ghost Dance Religion.

The Turquoise Ledge: A memoir

In 2010, Silko released The Turquoise Ledge: A memoir. Written using distinctive prose and overall structure influenced by Native American storytelling traditions, the book is a broad-ranging exploration not only of her Laguna Pueblo, Cherokee, Mexican and European family history but also of the natural world, suffering, insight, environmentalism and the sacred. The desert southwest setting is prominent. Although non-fiction, the stylized presentation is reminiscent of creative fiction.

Essays

A longtime commentator on Native American affairs, Silko has published many non-fictional articles on Native American affairs and literature.

Silko's 2 most famous essays are outspoken attacks on fellow writers. In "An Old-Fashioned Indian Attack in Two Parts", originally published in Geary Hobson’s collection The Remembered Earth (1978), Silko accused Gary Snyder of profiting from Native American culture, particularly in his collection Turtle Island, the name and theme of which was taken from Pueblo mythology.

In 1986, Silko published a review entitled "Here’s an Odd Artifact for the Fairy-Tale Shelf", on Anishinaabe writer Louise Erdrich's novel The Beet Queen. Silko claimed Erdrich had abandoned writing about the Native American struggle for sovereignty in exchange for writing "self-referential," postmodern fiction.

In 2012 a textbook, Rethinking Columbus, which includes an essay by her, was banned by the Tucson Unified School District following a statewide ban on Ethnic and Cultural Studies.

Recognition

She received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 1981.

Publications

Poetry

• Laguna Women: Poems (1974)

Novels

• Ceremony. New York: Viking, 1977.
• Almanac of the Dead: A novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
• Gardens in the Dunes: A novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Short fiction

• Western Stories (1980)
• Storyteller. New York: Arcade / Little, Brown, 1981.
• Love poem and Slim Man Canyon (1996)
• Rain (1996)
• Sacred Water: Narratives and Pictures (1993)

Non-fiction

• Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on native American life today. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
• Conversations with Leslie Marmon Silko (edited by Ellen L. Arnold). Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2000.
• The Turquoise Ledge (memoir). New York: Viking, 2010.

Letters

• The Delicacy And Strength of Lace: Letters between Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright (edited by Anne Wright). Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1986.

Leslie Marmon Silko at the NYS Writers Institute in 2007

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• Native American poets
• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• Leslie Marmon Silko at PoemHunter (3 poems)

Audio / video

• Leslie Marmon Silko at YouTube
• "Leslie Marmon Silko - Q&A - AZ Ethnic Studies Ban", soundcloud
• KCRW Bookworm Interview

Books

• Leslie Marmon Silko at Amazon.com
• Works by or about Leslie Marmon Silko in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

About

• Leslie Marmon Silko profile at the Academy of American Poets
• Leslie Marmon Silko b. 1948 at the Poetry Foundation
• Biography on Literati.net
• Leslie Marmon Silko at Native American Authors
• Leslie Marmon Silko b. 1948 at the Poetry Foundation
• "Leslie Marmon Silko" by Per Seyersted in the Western Writers Series Digital Editions at Boise State University
• An interview with Leslie Marmon Silko at The Write Stuff

This article incorporates Creative Commons-licensed text from the Native Wiki. Original article is at Leslie Marmon Silko.