PLEASE NOTE. As of June 2004 these pages and the links herein are no longer being updated or maintained. Disclaimer : Oakland Unified School District is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Leslie Marmon Silko (b. 1948), a poet and fiction writer, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and grew up on the Laguna Pueblo reservation. She graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1969, the same year she published her first work, "Tony's Story." Her first book of poems, Laguna Women, appeared in 1974 and her first novel, Ceremony, in 1977.

Silko's work reflects her belief in the importance of the preservation of Native American traditions and ways of life. In her second novel, Ceremony (1981), Silko uses Native American stories, in the form of prose and poetry, to retell her own family's story. Her most recent works include Yellow Woman and A Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today (1996). Silko received an award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1974 and a MacArthur Foundation grant in 1981. She currently teaches at the University of Arizona, Tucson. More...

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/fiction/silko.htm (LitLinks)