Series Type: Professional Development

Search for Identity – Activities

Search for Identity – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Alice Walker (b. 1944)

Born in rural Eatonton, Georgia, but educated in the North, Alice Walker has been able to analyze the rural South,…

Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937)

Thomas Pynchon has become famous as the man who does not want to be famous. Little is known about this…

Toni Morrison (b. 1931)

Unlike many African American authors, Toni Morrison has set most of her fiction not in the rural South or the…

David Mamet (b. 1947)

David Mamet was born on the Jewish south side of Chicago. His plays have been performed throughout the country, in…

Maxine Hong Kingston (b. 1940)

Maxine Hong Kingston, née Maxine Ting Hong, was born in Stockton, California, to Chinese immigrant parents who left successful careers…

Diane Glancy (b. 1941)

Born in Kansas City, Diane Glancy is a poet, short story writer, playwright, and professor. She received her B.A. from…

Leslie Feinberg (1949 – 2014)

Like her character Jess Goldberg, Leslie Feinberg was born in Buffalo, New York, where she grew up before the 1969…

Judith Ortiz Cofer (b. 1952)

Judith Ortiz Cofer was born in Hormingueros, Puerto Rico, and was educated in the United States, primarily New Jersey. Her…

Sandra Cisneros (b. 1954)

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago but spent most of her childhood and youth moving back and forth between Chicago…

Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1995)

In addition to writing many stories and novels, Toni Cade Bambara was a civil rights activist, teacher, and editor. She…

Poetry of Liberation – Activities

Poetry of Liberation – Timeline

James Wright (1927-1980)

James Wright grew up in Martins Ferry, Ohio, a small midwestern town hit hard by the depression. Wright’s father worked…

Gary Snyder (b. 1930)

Gary Snyder was raised on a dairy farm in the Pacific Northwest. He graduated with a B.A. in anthropology from…

Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

Born in Baltimore, Adrienne Rich describes her mother and grandmother as “frustrated artists,” whose talents were denied expression by culture…

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

Sylvia Plath spent most of her childhood in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she lived close to her maternal grandparents. Her father,…

Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

The daughter of West Indian parents, Audre Lorde was born in Harlem. She graduated from Hunter College in 1961 and…

Joy Harjo (b. 1951)

The daughter of a mixed Cherokee, French, and Irish mother and a Creek father, Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.…

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Louis, a poet and high school teacher, and Naomi, who was…

Lorna Dee Cervantes (b. 1954)

Cervantes was born in San Francisco and is of Mexican descent. Sensitive to the racial and ethnic prejudice she might…

Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) (b. 1934)

Amiri Baraka was born Everett Leroy Jones in Newark, New Jersey. A creative child, he enjoyed cartooning and creative writing,…

John Ashbery (b. 1927)

John Ashbery was born in Rochester, New York, and he earned his B.A. from Harvard University. He also received an…

Becoming Visible – Activities

Becoming Visible – Timeline

Philip Roth (b. 1933)

Philip Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey. His father was a struggling businessman for most of Roth’s young life,…

Grace Paley (b. 1922)

Of her early writing, Paley notes, “I didn’t yet realize that you have to have two ears. One ear is…

N. Scott Momaday (b. 1934)

Writer, teacher, artist, and storyteller, Navarre Scott Momaday has spent his life preserving the oral traditions and culture of Native…

Arthur Miller (b. 1915)

Arthur Miller was born in Manhattan to a German Jewish family. His father, a successful clothing manufacturer, lost the business…

Paule Marshall (b. 1929)

Born Valenza Pauline Burke to parents who had emigrated from Barbados to New York, Paule Marshall explores the contrasts between…

Bernard Malamud (1914-1986)

In Saul Bellow’s eulogy to Bernard Malamud, he writes that “a language is a spiritual mansion from which no one…

Ralph Ellison (1914-1994)

Ralph Ellison grew up in Oklahoma City and attended college at the Tuskegee Institute, where he was a music major…

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)

Born in Topeka, Kansas, Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks grew up in Chicago. As a child she attended both all-white and all-black…

Saul Bellow (b. 1915)

Saul Bellow remains one of the most important post-World War II Jewish American writers. Like Roth, Malamud, and Paley, he…

James Baldwin (1924-1987)

The eldest of nine children, James Baldwin was born in Harlem. An excellent student who read and wrote from an…

Southern Renaissance – Activities

Southern Renaissance – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Richard Wright (1908-1960)

Richard Wright grew up during some of the darkest days of racial segregation in the American South, and the horrors…

Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)

Known for his ability to produce lyrical torrents of largely autobiographical prose, Thomas Wolfe earned critical and commercial success with…

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)

“A morbid shyness once prevented me from having much direct communication with people,” Tennessee Williams wrote, “and possibly that is…

Eudora Welty (1909-2001)

Eudora Alice Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, where she lived nearly all of her life. A first-generation Mississippian, Welty…

Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)

A prominent member of the Southern Agrarians as well as an accomplished poet and novelist, Robert Penn Warren was born…

John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974)

A leading force in southern letters from the 1920s on, John Crowe Ransom was born in Pulaski, Tennessee. Educated primarily…

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980)

“It is my firm belief,” Katherine Anne Porter once said, “that all our lives we are preparing to be somebody…

Flannery O’Connor (1925-1965)

Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the daughter of devout Catholic parents of good social standing. She was…

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

Although she would later mislead people about her age and birthplace, Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1891 in Notasulga,…

William Faulkner (1897-1962)

The man who would become one of twentieth-century American literature’s best-known figures, William Cuthbert Falkner (he added the “u” to…

Migrant Struggle – Activities

Migrant Struggle – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Helena Maria Viramontes (b. 1954)

Viramontes is a Chicana writer who was born in East Los Angeles, California. She attended Immaculate Heart College and the…

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Best known as one of the first proponents of American Transcendentalism, Henry David Thoreau was also one of the first…

John Steinbeck (1902-1968)

John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, depicts the plight of the Joads, a family of…

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968)

Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and is best known for his 1906 muckraking novel, The Jungle. He received a…

Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980)

Muriel Rukeyser was a political poet whose verse is noted for its intricate style and sophistication. She was born in…

Tomas Rivera (1935-1984)

Tomas Rivera was born in Crystal City, Texas. During his childhood, he accompanied his parents, who worked as farm laborers,…

Alberto Ríos (b. 1952)

The son of a Mexican American father and a British mother, Alberto Ríos was born in Nogales, Arizona, on the…

Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

Robinson Jeffers was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was a minister and professor of Old Testament literature. When he…

Carlos Bulosan (1913-1956)

About 150,000 Filipinos immigrated to the United States between 1906 and 1946. Early on, many Filipinos came to America to…

Rudolfo A. Anaya (b. 1937)

Rudolfo Anaya was born in Pastura, New Mexico. His family moved to Albuquerque when he was fifteen. While working as a public…

Modernist Portraits – Activities

Modernist Portraits – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Wallace Stevens (1883-1963)

Wallace Stevens grew up in Pennsylvania and attended Harvard University for three years, leaving in 1897 to pursue a career…

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

Gertrude Stein lived most of her life in Europe, yet considered herself an American, famously declaring that “America is my…

John Dos Passos (1896-1970)

John Dos Passos is one of the most overtly political authors in this unit. Involved in many radical political movements,…

Marianne Moore (1887-1972)

Moore, like many other authors in this unit, was born in the Midwest but eventually settled in the East. She…

Nella Larsen (1891-1964)

Nella Larsen, like Quicksand‘s Helga, was born to parents of different races: her father was West Indian and her mother was…

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

Hemingway once stated that his goal as a writer was to create “one true sentence.” The characteristic pared-down style he…

Susan Glaspell (1876-1948)

Born in Davenport, Iowa, Susan Glaspell grew up in a Midwest that was settled only decades before, but was developing…

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best-known work, The Great Gatsby, has made him familiar to generations of students of American literature. Though the…

Hart Crane (1899-1932)

Though Hart Crane only lived thirty-three years, the rich poetry he produced provides readers with an alternative view of modernity–his…

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)

Born in southern Ohio, Sherwood Anderson was the middle child of seven. His father, a harness maker, moved the family…

Rhythms In Poetry – Activities

Rhythms in Poetry – Timeline

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

Born in Rutherford, New Jersey, William Carlos Williams was the son of an English immigrant and a mother born in…

Jean Toomer (1894-1967)

Born in Washington, D.C., Nathan Eugene Toomer was raised by his grandparents. He studied at several universities, including the University…

Genevieve Taggard (1894-1948)

Born in Waitsburg, Washington, Genevieve Taggard was raised in Hawaii, where her parents ran a school. Taggard attended the University…

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, to parents who had emigrated from Sweden. His father was a hard-working blacksmith,…

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

Like T. S. Eliot, with whom he enjoyed a long friendship, Ezra Pound lived his early years in the United…

Claude McKay (1889-1948)

Born in Jamaica, Claude McKay came to America to study agriculture at Tuskegee Institute, a historically black university founded by…

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Langston Hughes stands as one of the most prolific writers in American history: he wrote poetry, two novels, two autobiographies,…

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Although Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, where he spent his first eleven years, he is commonly associated with…

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

Born in St. Louis, Thomas Stearns Eliot was one of seven children. Originally from New England, the Eliot family’s lineage…

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961)

Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Hilda Doolittle attended exclusive private schools in Philadelphia and was admitted to Bryn Mawr College. Her…

Social Realism – Activities

Social Realism – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Anzia Yezierska (1880-1970)

In the course of a career that spanned more than fifty years, Anzia Yezierska recorded Eastern European women immigrants’ struggles…

Edith Wharton (1862-1937)

Edith Wharton was born into a wealthy, conservative, New York family that traced its lineage back to the colonial settlement…

Booker T. Washington (c. 1856-1915)

Born into slavery and poverty, Booker T. Washington grew up to become one of the most powerful African American public…

Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt (c. 1836-1919)

Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt (1836-1919) A poet widely published in nineteenth-century America, Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt saw hundreds of her…

Henry James (1843-1916)

Henry James (1843-1916) Known for his sophisticated style, precise language, extraordinary productivity, and innovative attention to the novel form, Henry…

Sui Sin Far (Edith Maud Eaton) (1865-1914)

Writing around the turn of the twentieth century, Sui Sin Far, or Edith Maud Eaton, challenged entrenched social and political…

W. E. B. Du Bois (c. 1868-1963)

With the publication of The Souls of Black Folk in 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois emerged as the intellectual leader of…

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

One of the foremost practitioners of American realism, Theodore Dreiser wrote novels and stories that explored such themes as the…

Abraham Cahan (c. 1860-1951)

As a journalist and fiction writer, Abraham Cahan explored the social, cultural, and spiritual tensions of the Eastern European Jewish…

Henry Adams (1838-1918)

From his early childhood on, Henry Adams was acutely aware of his heritage as part of the remarkable political dynasty…

Regional Realism – Activities

Regional Realism – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) (1876-1938)

Writer, musician, educator, and Indian rights activist, Zitkala-Sa (or Red Bird) was born on the Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in…

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

Samuel L. Clemens, better known by his pen name “Mark Twain,” continues to enjoy a reputation, already attained by the…

Alexander Posey (1873-1908)

Alexander Posey recorded his insights into Creek Indian tribal politics and Native American customs in his poetry, journalism, and political…

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)

Sarah Orne Jewett’s evocative sketches of village life in nineteenth-century Maine have earned her a place among the most important…

Bret Harte (1836-1902)

At the height of his career, in the 1860s and 1870s, Bret Harte was one of the most famous and…

Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908)

Most famous for his creation of the black folk figure Uncle Remus, Joel Chandler Harris was also a journalist, humorist,…

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930)

In composing her well-received realist depictions of women’s lives in New England villages, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman wrote about the…

Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa) (1858-1939)

A Santee Sioux, physician, government agent, and spokesperson for Indian rights, Charles Alexander Eastman was also the first well-known, widely…

Kate Chopin (1851-1904)

Writing at the end of the nineteenth century at the height of the popularity of “local color” fiction, Kate Chopin…

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932)

Charles W. Chesnutt was a pioneer among African American fiction writers, addressing controversial issues of race in a realist style…

Slavery and Freedom – Activities

Slavery and Freedom – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born into a large New England religious family. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a prominent Evangelical…

Sorrow Songs

Drawing on both African musical styles and western European sources, black slaves in the antebellum South created a rich musical…

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Born to impoverished parents in backwoods Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln rose to become the sixteenth president of the United States. His…

Harriet Jacobs (c. 1813-1897)

Born into slavery in North Carolina, Harriet Ann Jacobs was raised both by her free black grandmother and by a…

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

A committed activist for Native American rights, Helen Hunt Jackson provides an important context for understanding Indian slavery and exploitation…

Briton Hammon (fl. 1760)

Briton Hammon’s “Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man,” published in Boston in…

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Frederick Douglass was one of the most influential African American thinkers of his day, in spite of his inauspicious beginnings.…

William and Ellen Craft (c. 1826-1897)

William and Ellen Craft’s daring escape from slavery in 1848 made them famous throughout antebellum America, heroes in the eyes…

Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880)

Lydia Maria Child (born Lydia Francis) was raised outside of Boston in a community she described as made up of…

Lorenzo Asisara (b. 1819)

While the institution of slavery is generally associated with African Americans and with the antebellum South, it was in fact…

Gothic Undercurrents – Activities

Gothic Undercurrents – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870)

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, and remaining near his birthplace throughout his life, Simms was well-known as the author of…

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Born to the teenage actors Elizabeth Arnold and David Poe Jr. (in a time when acting was a highly disreputable…

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Herman Melville’s father was a New York City merchant who, when he died suddenly, left his family heavily in debt.…

Washington Irving (c. 1783-1859)

America’s first international literary celebrity, as well as its first fully professional writer, was born in New York City, the…

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, a descendant of the first Puritan colonists, including one of the judges of the…

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Charlotte Perkins was raised by her mother. Her father abandoned the family shortly after her birth…

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

A lifelong resident of Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson left her hometown for only one year, when she attended Mt. Holyoke…

Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810)

Born in Philadelphia to wealthy Quaker parents, Charles Brockden Brown was initially pressured by his family to study law. However,…

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?)

Ambrose Bierce spent an unhappy childhood in Ohio and left home as a bitter and pessimistic young man. At the…

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1837)

Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Henry Ward Beecher was the son of the preacher Lyman Beecher and the brother of the…

Masculine Heroes – Activities

Masculine Heroes – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Walt Whitman’s publication of Leaves of Grass in July 1855 represented nothing short of a radical shift in American poetry. Written in –that…

Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867)

Catharine Maria Sedgwick was one of the leading figures in early-nineteenth-century American literary culture. Although she is less well known…

John Rollin Ridge (Yellow Bird) (1827-1867)

John Rollin Ridge was born in the Cherokee Nation (present-day Georgia) into a prominent Native American family. Both his father…

Nat Love (1854-1921)

Born into slavery in Tennessee, Nat Love eventually found fame as “Deadwood Dick,” the cowboy celebrated in western lore, dime…

Caroline Stansbury Kirkland (1801-1864)

Appearing well before either “regionalism” or “realism” had established themselves as literary movements, Caroline Kirkland’s early writings anticipate these developments…

Corridos

The , a narrative ballad usually sung or spoken to music, was the most important literary genre of the southwestern  region, where…

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

At the height of his fame in the early nineteenth century, James Fenimore Cooper was America’s foremost novelist and one…

Louise Amelia Smith Clappe (1819-1906)

Born in New Jersey and educated at female academies in New England, Louise Clappe had an unusual background for a…

Cherokee Memorials

At the end of the eighteenth century, the Cherokee tribe was living in the mountain areas of northern Georgia and…

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton (c. 1832-1895)

Maria Amparo Ruiz was born into an aristocratic Latino family on the Baja peninsula in Mexico. Her grandfather, Don Jose…

Spirit of Nationalism – Activities

Spirit of Nationalism – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784)

One of the best known and most highly regarded pre-nineteenth-century American poets, Phillis Wheatley achieved poetic fame despite her status…

Royall Tyler (1757-1826)

Born into a wealthy Boston family, Royall Tyler would grow up to become the author of the first successful and…

Susanna Rowson (c. 1762-1824)

Susanna Rowson’s colorful life story in some ways resembles one of the melodramatic plots of her popular novels and plays.…

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

President John F. Kennedy paid tribute to Thomas Jefferson’s many accomplishments when he told a group of Nobel Prize winners…

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)

Margaret Fuller ranked among the most celebrated public intellectuals in her own day, an accomplishment that is especially remarkable given…

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Benjamin Franklin’s extraordinary energy and varied talents made him successful as a writer, humorist, statesman, diplomat, businessman, and scientist. The…

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the preeminent philosopher, writer, and thinker of his day, best known for articulating the  ideals of creative…

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

Jonathan Edwards’s writings articulate a complex synthesis of traditional Puritan piety,  beliefs in the potential of the human will, and…

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur (1735-1813)

Although his writings evince a reverence for pastoral, quiet farm life, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur led a restless…

William Apess (1798-1839)

William Apess composed the first published autobiography by a Native American. Born in Massachusetts, Apess was part of the Pequot…

Utopian Promise – Activities

Utopian Promise – Timeline

This timeline places literary publications (in black) in their historical contexts (in red).

John Woolman (1720-1772)

John Woolman was born into a Quaker family in West Jersey (later New Jersey) in 1720. From an early age,…

John Winthrop (1588-1649)

Born into a wealthy landholding family in southern England in 1588, John Winthrop entered Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age…

Edward Taylor (c. 1642-1729)

Edward Taylor was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1642 to Nonconformist parents of modest circumstances. In his mid-twenties, frustrated by…

Mary Rowlandson (c. 1636-1711)

Born around 1637 in Somerset, England, Mary White was the sixth of ten children. Her family immigrated to New England…

William Penn (1644-1718)

William Penn was an unusual convert to Quakerism. Most Quakers came from relatively humble backgrounds and possessed little formal education,…

Samson Occom (1723-1792)

Samson Occom was born in 1723 in a Mohegan Indian community in Connecticut. At the age of sixteen he was…

Thomas Morton (c. 1579-1647)

The historical record does not offer much detail about Thomas Morton’s early life beyond the basic facts that he was…

Sarah Kemble Knight (1666-1727)

Sarah Kemble was born in Boston in 1666, the daughter of Thomas Kemble, a successful merchant, and Elizabeth Trerice, who…

Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612-1672)

Anne Bradstreet was born in England in 1612 to well-connected Puritan parents. Her father, Thomas Dudley, was unusual in his…

William Bradford (1590-1657)

Born in 1590 in Yorkshire, England, William Bradford was orphaned at a young age and reared by his grandparents and…

Exploring Borderlands – Activities

Exploring Borderlands – Timeline

Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616)

One of the first American writers of mixed ethnic heritage, Garcilaso de la Vega signaled his mestizo identity by proudly…

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1490-1558)

Often called the first culturally  or mestizo writer, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca composed his Relation to narrate his extraordinary experience as a Spaniard who…

John Smith (c. 1580-1631)

A consummate self-promoter, John Smith would be delighted with the privileged position that his adventures in Virginia have assumed within…

Americo Paredes (c. 1915-1999)

Born in the town of Brownsville on the border between south Texas and Mexico, Americo Paredes became an eloquent interpreter…

Adriaen Van der Donck (1620-1655)

Adriaen Van der Donck began his professional life studying law at the University of Leyden in the Netherlands. Then, in…

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

In his 1828 biography of Christopher Columbus, American author Washington Irving styled Columbus as the archetypal American hero. Walt Whitman…

Samuel de Champlain (c. 1570-1635)

Often called the “Father of New France,” Samuel de Champlain was a leader in exploring and claiming vast areas of…

Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492-1584)

Bernal Díaz del Castillo was born in the Castile region of Spain in 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus…

Bartolomé de las Casas (c. 1474-1566)

Sometimes celebrated as the “conscience” of Spanish colonization, Bartolomé de las Casas was one of the first Europeans to recognize…

Gloria Anzaldúa (b. 1942)

Gloria Anzaldúa’s work is fundamentally concerned with articulating what she calls a “new mestiza consciousness,” an identity characterized by hybridity, flexibility, and…

Native Voices – Activities

Suggested Author Pairings

Luci Tapahonso and Louise Erdrich Both Luci Tapahonso and Louise Erdrich emphasize the relationship of female power to Native American…

Roger Williams (c. 1603-1683)

Although we do not have written texts by Algonquian Indians from the very early contact period, we can learn about…

Luci Tapahonso (b. 1953)

A Navajo woman born in Shiprock, New Mexico, Luci Tapahonso grew up on a farm within the largest Indian reservation…

Stories of the Beginning of the World

Myths-deeply traditional stories that explain the origins of a phenomenon or cultural practice—serve as some of the foundational narratives for…

Leslie Marmon Silko (b. 1948)

Leslie Marmon Silko was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the house where her father was also born. She grew…

Simon J. Ortiz (b. 1941)

Simon J. Ortiz’s world is one of mixtures and doublings, of multiple identities: he has an American name and an…

Thomas Harriot (1560-1621)

Born in England and educated at Oxford, Thomas Harriot was employed as a young man by the explorer Sir Walter…

Ghost Dance Songs

One of the most tragic events in Native American history was the massacre of some two hundred Sioux men, women,…

Louise Erdrich (b. 1954)

Born in Little Falls, Minnesota, Louise Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe of North Dakota. The…

Chippewa Songs

Frances Densmore collected these Chippewa songs between 1907 and 1909. The songs reflect the culture of the Chippewa peoples who…