Leslie Marmon Silko (1948-)

Leslie Marmon Silko was born in 1948 and reared on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. Her childhood was spent with female relatives who taught her Laguna stories and traditions which consequently inspired her to write poetry and fiction. Educated in the Laguna and Albuquerque schools, she went on to the University of New Mexico where she graduated with honors in 1969. For a short time, she attended law school before dedicating herself to writing.

In Silko's books, she attempts to keep the Laguna people's culture alive by blending together their legends, myths, and lore. In her writing, she incorporates her own family stories to strongly evoke her tribal ancestry. In 1945 the atom bomb was exploded just 150 miles from her home in Laguna. Later, the Anaconda Company opened a large, open-pit uranium mine on Laguna land. Her concern about her native land was reflected in her 1977 book, Ceremony, which focused on the dangers of nuclear war in America. A later work, Storyteller, was set in Alaska and published in 1981. It draws on Native American myths, poetry, fiction, family history, and photographs.

Leslie Marmon Silko has continued to publish numerous works related to her tribe and her family. In addition to writing, Silko has taught at Navajo Community College, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Arizona.

Related Links

Voices from the Gap

Native American Authors - Teacher Resources

The Internet Public Library Native American Authors Teacher Resources

Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna)

Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony and the Effects of White Contact on Pueblo Myth and Ritual

Interactive Workshop - In Search of the Novel

Fences Against Freedom

Hopi Civilization

Native American Literature - The Pueblo

An interview with Leslie Marmon Silko