Luci Tapahonso is Professor Emerita of English Literature (University of New Mexico 2016) and served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation. She is a recipient of a 2018 Native Arts and Culture Foundation Artist Fellowship.
She is the author of three children’s books and six books of poetry including A Radiant Curve. She recently served as a judge for Poetry Out Loud, the New Mexico High School Poetry Competition and was selected as “2016 Best of the City- Our City and State’s Prolific Authors,” by Albuquerque the Magazine. Professor Tapahonso has delivered keynote addresses at several conferences and institutions including Harvard University, Gallup Central High School, Kenyon College, Institute of American Indian Arts, the Tbisili International Literature Festival in the Republic of Georgia and “Creativity Week” at the University of New Zealand at Auckland and Wellington.
She recently completed a script for an exhibition called “Creating Tradition: Innovation and Change in American Indian Art” for the American Heritage Gallery at Walt Disney World’s Epcot and is completing the manuscript for her next book.
Luci Tapahonso lives in Santa Fe with her husband, Dr. Robert Martin, who is president of the Institute of American Indian Arts.