Joy Harjo Lands Major Poetry Award

Joy Harjo

Photos by Taté Walker (Mniconjou Lakota)

One of the nation’s most prestigious poetry prizes was recently awarded to writer and musician Joy Harjo (Mvskoke).

Established in 1994, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets recognizes “outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.” Recipients are given a $100,000 grant.

Harjo is the first Native American to be awarded the honor and one of only four women to receive it.

“It came out of left field for me because I started writing poetry around the ’70s and so I’ve been at it for a long time,” says Harjo, 64. “As a Native person, you go through tests. There have been times I’ve almost given up and have had every door slammed in my face, especially with poetry … I feel like I’m carrying this award for all of us.”

Harjo’s works include Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015), Crazy Brave: A Memoir (2012), How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems (2002) and The Woman Who Fell From the Sky (1994).

Read a review of 'Holy Beings' >>here<<. 

Academy of American Poets says Harjo received the award for her role in expanding American language, culture and soul through a career as a poet, storyteller, musician, memoirist, playwright and activist.

“… [Harjo’s] visionary justice-seeking art transforms personal and collective bitterness to beauty, fragmentation to wholeness, and trauma to healing,” writes Ostriker on the organization’s website.

Harjo hopes to use her new platform as a way to bring visibility to young Native artists and poets.

“I want to talk about some young, powerful Native poets and their work out there now,” Harjo says. “I am going to bring them with me by speaking their names so people know who they are. This award affords me the opportunity to open the door wider.”

Harjo intends to utilize part of the Wallace Stevens grant to help start a Muscogee Arts Association, which would set up mentorships for budding Muscogee artists and work to get their art into community centers.

In the meantime, Harjo also keeps busy doing live performances, teaching, and writing memoirs, plays and musicals. Through November, Harjo will present live poetry readings and music performances around the country.

Watch a video of Harjo performing her poetry and music from her new book, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings. Video by Taté Walker.

The artist will be busy through 2016. Of the many items on her plate, Harjo plans to focus on teaching; to complete her musical play, titled We Were There When Jazz Was Invented; to write a memoir about Indigenous-rights activism in the 1970s; and to record an album. Fans can keep up with Harjo’s schedule by visiting her website at . 

Online Exclusive: Harjo’s picks for fans looking to add to their reading lists:

• , Flood Song (Copper Canyon Press, 2009)
• , When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press, 2012)
• , Cell Traffic: New and Selected Poems (University of Arizona Press, 2012)
• (Muscogee Creek), Leaving Tulsa (University of Arizona Press, 2013)
• (Cherokee), Dark Thirty (University of Arizona Press, 2009)
• (Cherokee), Editor, Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas (University of Arizona Press, 2011)
• (Inupiaq), Hyperboreal (Pitt Poetry Series, 2013)
• (Inuit/Inupiaq), Corpse Whale (University of Arizona Press, 2012)
• (Lakota), Whereas (Gray Wolf Press, forthcoming 2017)
• (Diné), Letters (Nightboat Press, 2015)
• (Paiute/Southern Ute), Words Like Love (West End Press, 2015)

Sloane Cornelius is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation of South Dakota. She is a freelance writer and social justice activist who lives in Nebraska. She can be reached at or @cantezuyawin on Twitter.