Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
Encyclopedia
The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (NWCA) is an organization of Native American writers, most notable for its literary awards, presented annually to Native American writers in three categories: First Book of Poetry, First Book of Prose, and Lifetime Achievement. The awards are voted upon by Native American writers, making it one of the few literary awards presented to Native Americans by Native Americans.
The Circle (along with its sister organization, the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers) was formed as the outgrowth of the 1992 "Returning the Gift" Native Writers' Festival, a gathering of Native American writers from Canada, the United States, Mexico and the Central America. The NWCA maintains contact information for Native American writers and a collection of Native American literature. The organization has been hosted by the University of Oklahoma
's department of Native American Studies
.
The Circle (along with its sister organization, the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers) was formed as the outgrowth of the 1992 "Returning the Gift" Native Writers' Festival, a gathering of Native American writers from Canada, the United States, Mexico and the Central America. The NWCA maintains contact information for Native American writers and a collection of Native American literature. The organization has been hosted by the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
's department of Native American Studies
Native American Studies
Native American Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the history, culture, politics, issues and contemporary experience of Native peoples in North America, or, taking a hemispheric approach, the Americas...
.
Lifetime Achievement Awards
The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas awarded the following Native authors with Lifetime Achievement Awards.- 1992 N. Scott MomadayN. Scott MomadayNavarre Scott Momaday is a Kiowa-Cherokee Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.-Background:...
(KiowaKiowaThe Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
-CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
) - 1993 Simon J. OrtizSimon J. OrtizSimon J. Ortiz is a Native American writer of the Acoma Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what has been called the Native American Renaissance...
(Acoma PuebloAcoma PuebloAcoma Pueblo is a Native American pueblo approximately 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico in the United States. Three reservations make up Acoma Pueblo: Sky City , Acomita, and McCartys. The Acoma Pueblo tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity...
) - 1994 Leslie Marmon SilkoLeslie Marmon SilkoLeslie Marmon Silko is a Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
(Laguna PuebloLaguna PuebloLaguna is a Native American tribe of the Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, USA. The name, Laguna, is Spanish and derives from the lake located on their reservation. The real Keresan name of the tribe is Kawaik. The population of the tribe exceeds 7,000 , making it the largest Keresan...
) - 1995 Joy HarjoJoy HarjoJoy Harjo is a Native American poet, musician, and author of ancestry. Known primarily as a poet, Harjo has also taught at the college level, played alto saxophone with a band called Poetic Justice, edited literary journals, and written screenplays. She is a member of the Muscogee Nation and...
(Muscogee Creek) - 1996 Vine Deloria, Jr.Vine Deloria, Jr.Vine Deloria, Jr. was an American Indian author, theologian, historian, and activist. He was widely known for his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto , which helped generate national attention to Native American issues in the same year as the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement...
(Standing Rock Sioux) - 1997 James Welch (BlackfeetBlackfeetThe Piegan Blackfeet are a tribe of Native Americans of the Algonquian language family based in Montana, having lived in this area since around 6,500 BC. Many members of the tribe live as part of the Blackfeet Nation in northwestern Montana, with population centered in Browning...
-Gros VentreGros VentresThe Gros Ventre people , also known as the A'ani, A'aninin, Haaninin, and Atsina, are a historically Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe located in north central Montana...
) - 1998 Linda HoganLinda Hogan (writer)Linda K. Hogan is a Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories.She is currently the Chickasaw Nation's Writer in Residence.-Early life:Linda Hogan is Chickasaw...
(ChickasawChickasawThe Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
) - 1999 Joseph BruchacJoseph BruchacJoseph Bruchac is a writer of books relating to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a particular focus on northeastern Native American and Anglo-American lives and folklore. He has published works of poetry, novels, and short stories. He is from Saratoga Springs, New York, and is of...
(Abenaki) - 2000 Louise ErdrichLouise ErdrichKaren Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
(Turtle Mountain Chippewa) - 2001 Paula Gunn AllenPaula Gunn AllenPaula Gunn Allen was a Native American poet, literary critic, lesbian activist, and novelist.Born Paula Marie Francis in Albuquerque, Allen grew up in Cubero, New Mexico, a Spanish-Mexican land grant village bordering the Laguna Pueblo reservation...
(Laguna PuebloLaguna PuebloLaguna is a Native American tribe of the Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, USA. The name, Laguna, is Spanish and derives from the lake located on their reservation. The real Keresan name of the tribe is Kawaik. The population of the tribe exceeds 7,000 , making it the largest Keresan...
) and Gerald VizenorGerald VizenorGerald Robert Vizenor is a Native American writer, and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. One of the most prolific Native American writers, with over 30 books to his name, Vizenor also taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, where...
(White Earth Chippewa) - 2002 Maurice Kenny (Mohawk NationMohawk nationMohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
) - 2003 Geary Hobson (CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
-QuapawQuapawThe Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas.They are federally recognized as the Quapaw Tribe of Indians.-Government:...
-ChickasawChickasawThe Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
) - 2004 Lee FrancisLee FrancisElias Lee Francis III was a Laguna Pueblo-Anishinaabe poet, educator, and founder of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.-Family:...
(Laguna PuebloLaguna PuebloLaguna is a Native American tribe of the Pueblo people in west-central New Mexico, USA. The name, Laguna, is Spanish and derives from the lake located on their reservation. The real Keresan name of the tribe is Kawaik. The population of the tribe exceeds 7,000 , making it the largest Keresan...
) - 2005 Carter RevardCarter RevardCarter Curtis Revard is an American poet, writer and scholar. He is part Osage on his father's side. He is also known by his Osage name, Nom-Peh-Wah-The given to him in 1952 by his grandmother, Mrs. Josephine Jump....
(Osage NationOsage NationThe Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
) - 2006 Luci TapahonsoLuci TapahonsoLuci Tapahonso is a Navajo poet and lecturer in Native American Studies.-Early life:Born on the Navajo reservation, to Eugene Tapahonso , and Lucille Tapahonso, , Luci Tapahonso was raised in a traditional way along with 11 siblings. English was not spoken on the family farm, and Tapahonso...
(NavajoNavajo peopleThe Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
) - 2007 Robert J. ConleyRobert J. ConleyRobert J. Conley is a Cherokee author and enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, a federally recognized tribe of American Indians. In 2007, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.Conley was born in Cushing, Oklahoma and...
(United Keetoowah Band Cherokee) - 2008 Jack Forbes (Powhatan Renape-LenapeLenapeThe Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
) - 2009 Elizabeth Cook-LynnElizabeth Cook-LynnElizabeth Cook-Lynn is a Crow Creek Lakota Sioux editor, essayist, poet, novelist, and academic, whose trenchant views on Native American politics, particularly tribal sovereignty, have caused controversy....
(Crow Creek Sioux) - 2010 Sherman AlexieSherman AlexieSherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. is a writer, poet, filmmaker, and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a Native American. Two of Alexie's best known works are The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven , a book of short stories and Smoke Signals, a film...
(SpokaneSpokaneSpokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
-Coeur D'AleneCoeur d'Alene TribeThe Coeur d'Alene are a Native American people who lived in villages along the Coeur d'Alene, St. Joe, Clark Fork and Spokane Rivers; as well as sites on the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene, Lake Pend Oreille and Hayden Lake, in what is now northern Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana.In...
)
First Book Awards for Prose
- 1992 Robert L. PereaRobert L. PereaRobert L. Perea is a Mexican-American and Oglala Sioux author, Vietnam War veteran and a graduate of the University of New Mexico. He teaches philosophy and history at Central Arizona College near Phoenix...
(Oglala LakotaOglala LakotaThe Oglala Lakota or Oglala Sioux are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people; along with the Nakota and Dakota, they make up the Great Sioux Nation. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the...
), Stacey's Story- Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel (MoheganMoheganThe Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf". At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region...
), The Lasting of the Mohegans - William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. (Assiniboine), The Star Quilter (play, published in Where the Pavement Ends)
- Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel (Mohegan
- 1993 Philip H. Red Eagle (Sioux-Klallam), Red Earth
- 1994 Gus Palmer, Jr. (KiowaKiowaThe Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
), Calling Through the Creek - 1995 Glenn J. Twist (CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
-Muscogee Creek), Boston Mountain Tales - 1996 No award.
- 1997 Robert J. Perry (ChickasawChickasawThe Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
), Life With the Little People - 1998 No award.
- 1999 Evelina Zuni Lucero (Isleta PuebloIsleta PuebloIsleta Pueblo is an unincorporated Tanoan pueblo in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States, originally established around the 14th century.-Overview:...
-Ohkay Owingeh), Night Sky, Morning Star - 2000 Chip Livingston (Florida Creek), Naming Ceremony
- 2001 Valerie Red-HorseValerie Red-HorseValerie Red-Horse is an American Indian actress and author of claimed Cherokee/Sioux heritage. She is also a former office manager for junk bond king Michael Milken and the former CEO of an insolvent Financial Industry Regulatory Authority broker/dealer Native Nations Securities, which was the...
(Cherokee), Naturally Native - 2002 Edythe S. Hobson (Arkansas QuapawQuapawThe Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas.They are federally recognized as the Quapaw Tribe of Indians.-Government:...
), An Inquest Every Sunday - 2003 Susan Supernaw (Muscogee Creek-Munsee), The Power of a Name
- 2004 Kimberly G. Roppolo (CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
-ChoctawChoctawThe Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
-Muscogee Creek), Back to the Blanket: Reading, Writing, and Resistance for American Indian Literary Critics - 2005 Mia Heavener (Central Yup'ik), Tundra Berries
- 2006 Judy R. Smith (QuinnipiacQuinnipiacThis article is about the Native American nation. For the university, see Quinnipiac University.The Quinnipiac — rarely spelled Quinnipiack — is the English name for the Eansketambawg a Native American nation of the Algonquian family who inhabited the Wampanoki This article is about the Native...
-MohicanMohican-Native Americans:* Mahican , a Native American tribe who lived in and around the Hudson Valley* Mohegan, a functional confederation of several branches of Native Americans during the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century...
), Yellowbird- Frederick White (Haida), Welcome to the City of Rainbows
- 2007 Mary Lockwood (Malemuit Iñupiaq), Attugu Summa/Come and See What It Is
- 2008 unknown
- 2009 JudyLee Oliva (ChickasawChickasawThe Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
), Te Ata and Other Plays
First Book Awards for Poetry
- 1992 Gloria BirdGloria BirdGloria Bird is a poet and scholar and member of the Spokane Tribe of Washington State. She is one of the founding members of the Northwest Native American Writers Association.-Awards:...
(Spokane), Full Moon on the Reservation- Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya (YuchiYuchiFor the Chinese surname 尉迟, see Yuchi.The Yuchi, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American Indian tribe who traditionally lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee in the 16th century. During the 17th century, they moved south to Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina...
-ComancheComancheThe Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
), Making Holes
- Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya (Yuchi
- 1993 Kimberly Blaeser (White Earth Chippewa), Trailing You
- 1994 Tiffany Midge (Standing Rock Sioux), Outlaws, Renegades and Saints
- 1995 Denise SweetDenise SweetDenise Sweet is an Anishinaabe poet and a holds a doctorate in Humanistic Studies. She taught creative writing, literature and mythology, at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, but retired in 2009. She also taught a travel seminar in the Yucatán Peninsula and Guatemala involving fieldwork among the...
(White Earth Chippewa), Songs for Discharming - 1996 Charles G. Ballard (QuapawQuapawThe Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas.They are federally recognized as the Quapaw Tribe of Indians.-Government:...
-CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
), Winter Count Poems - 1997 Deborah A. MirandaDeborah A. MirandaDeborah Miranda is a Native American writer and poet. Her father, Alfred Edward Robles Mirada is from the Esselen and Chumash people, native to the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez/Monterery, California area...
(Costanoan-EsselenEsselenThe Esselen were a Native American linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who resided on the Central California coast and the coastal mountains, including what is now known as the Big Sur region in Monterey County, California...
-OhloneOhloneThe Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
), Indian Cartography - 1998 Jennifer K. Greene (Salish-Kootenai-Chippewa-CreeCreeThe Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
), What I Keep - 1999 Janet McAdamsJanet McAdamsJanet McAdams is an Alabama Creek/Scottish/Irish poet and the author of The Island of Lost Luggage which received an American Book Award in 2001 and the First Book Award for Poetry from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas in 1999...
(Poarch Band Creek), The Island of Lost Luggage - 2000 Karenne Wood (Monacan), Markings on Earth
- 2001 Suzanne Rancourt (Abenaki) , Billboard in the Clouds
- 2002 Renee Matthew (KoyukonKoyukonThe Koyukon are a group of Athabaskan people living in northern Alaska. Their traditional home is along the Koyukuk and Yukon rivers where they subsisted by hunting and trapping for thousands of years...
), Down River From Here- Phillip Caroll Morgan (ChoctawChoctawThe Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
-ChickasawChickasawThe Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
), The Fork-in-the-Road Indian Poetry Store
- Phillip Caroll Morgan (Choctaw
- 2003 Marlon D. Sherman (Oglala LakotaOglala LakotaThe Oglala Lakota or Oglala Sioux are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people; along with the Nakota and Dakota, they make up the Great Sioux Nation. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the...
), Wild Plums - 2004 Christina M. Castro (Jemez Pueblo-Taos PuebloTaos PuebloTaos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico, USA...
), Silence on the Rez- Cathy Ruiz (CreeCreeThe Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
-MétisMétisA Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...
), Stirring up the Water
- Cathy Ruiz (Cree
- 2005 Kim Shuck (CherokeeCherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
-Sac and Fox), Smuggling Cherokee - 2006 Rebecca Hatcher Travis (ChickasawChickasawThe Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
), Picked Apart the Bones - 2007 Kade L. Twist (Cherokee NationCherokee NationThe Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...
), Amazing Grace - 2008 unknown
- 2009 L. Rain C. Gomez (Louisiana ChoctawCreoleLouisiana Creole peopleLouisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent. The term was first used during colonial times by the settlers to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to those born in the Old World...
-Mvskogean-Nakoda Metis-Celtic American), Smoked Mullet Cornbread Memory