Leslie Marmon Silko
“Leslie Marmon Silko is a famous novelist, poet, and short story writer whose work is primarily concerned with the relations between different cultures and between human beings and the natural world.” [ (Fajardo-Acosta) ] Silko was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, under Laguna Pueblo, Plains Indians, and Anglo-American decent. Known as the Old Laguna, she grew up on the Laguna Reservation in Northern Mexico and is a part of a town formed several years ago by Pueblo tribes. “Her family was storytellers among the Laguna; her relatives were among the Native American who taught early twentieth-century anthropologists traditional myths and stories.” [ (Foundation) ] Part of Leslie’s education came in part from her grandmother and aunts in the traditional stories of Laguna people, and as a result caused her to be identified with the native part of her ancestry. She was educated at a Catholic school in Albuquerque, married her first husband, Richard C. Chapman, and went on to receive a BA for the University of New Mexico in 1969. After receiving the National Endowment for the Arts’ Discovery Grant in 1971, she briefly attended law school before leaving to pursue her literary career and marry her second husband, John Silko. [ (Leslie Marmon Silko Biography) ] [ (Fajardo-Acosta) ] In 1972, she gave birth to her second son, Cazimir Silko, and moved with her husband to Alaska. She returned to the Laguna reservation in 1976 where she later divorced her husband and continued on with her career. She published a short story “The Man to Send Rain Clouds,” a collection of poems including “Laguna Women” in 1974, and her first novel, Ceremony, in 1977. “The critical acclaim she earned from Ceremony solidified her position in the literary field and earned her numerous prestigious writing awards.” [ (Foundation) ] This major work, including her other literary works, weaves myths, history, and personal recollection of her Laguna background. It was in 1978 that she
Cited: Fajardo-Acosta, Fidel. “Yellow Woman.” Dr. Fidel Fajardo-Acosta’s World Literature Website. (2001, 2002) http://fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/silko/yellow_woman.htm Foundation, Poetry. “Leslie Marmon Silko (1948-).” Poetry Foundation. (2010) http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81869 Hirsch, Bernard A. “The Telling Which Continues in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storytelling.” The American Indian Quarterly (1988) Irmer, Thomas Shapiro, Collen. “Silko’s Ceremony.” The Explicator. (2010) http://www.mona.uwi.edu/liteng/courses/e38a/documents/silkoceremonytheexplicator.doc Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin Books, 1986 pg: 2 Silko, Leslie Marmon Silko, Leslie Marmon. Storyteller. Arcade, 1981 pg: 26 Velie, Alan R