Leslie Marmon Silko | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Silko at a 2011 reading | |
| Born | Leslie Marmon (1948-03-05)March 5, 1948 (age 77) |
| Occupation |
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of New Mexico |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Literary movement | Native American Renaissance |
| Notable work | Ceremony (1977) Storyteller (1981) Almanac of the Dead (1991) |
Leslie Marmon Silko (bornLeslie Marmon; born March 5, 1948) is an American writer. A woman ofLaguna Pueblo descent, she is one of the key figures in the First Wave of what literary critic Kenneth Lincoln has called theNative American Renaissance.
Silko was a debut recipient of theMacArthur Foundation Grant in 1981, theNative Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994[1] and the Robert Kirsch Award in 2020.[2] She currently resides inTucson,Arizona.[3][4]
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Leslie Marmon Silko was born inAlbuquerque,New Mexico toLeland Howard Marmon, a noted photographer, and Mary Virginia Leslie, a teacher, and grew up on theLaguna Pueblo reservation.[5] Her mixed-race family was of white American, Native American, and Mexican descent. She wrote that her paternal grandmother, who was born inMontana, had a father whose family was "part Plains Indian" but that her grandmother "never knew" which tribe she was descended from, and that her grandmother's father was "half German" with an "Indian" mother. She also wrote that her maternal grandmother waspart Cherokee "through her Grandfather Wood" who was fromKentucky.[6]
Silko grew up on the edge of Laguna Pueblo society both literally – her family's house was at the edge of the Laguna Pueblo reservation – but was not able to participate in some of the rituals because of the distance of their home.[7] Her father's Lagunablood quantum was one-quarter and hers is one-eighth; the Laguna Pueblo blood quantum requirement for regular membership is one-quarter. She is not an enrolled citizen of the Laguna Pueblo.[8][9] Calling herself a "mixed-breed," she had said that a sense of community is more important to Native identity than blood quantum: "That's where a person's identity has to come from, not from racial blood quantum levels."[10] She has described her Marmon family history as "very controversial, even now." She is of Laguna descent through her great-grandfather, a Laguna woman named Maria Anaya/Analla, who was married to a white settler named Robert Gunn Marmon. According to Silko, the core theme of her writing is an attempt to make sense of what it means to be "neither white nor fully traditionally Indian." She identifies culturally as a Laguna woman, but does not claim to be representative of Native voices.[11]
While her parents worked, Silko and her two sisters were cared for by their grandmother, Lillie Stagner, and great-grandmother, Helen Romero, both story-tellers.[12] Silko learned much of thetraditional stories of the Laguna people from her grandmother, whom she called A'mooh, her aunt Susie, and her grandfather Hank during her early years. As a result, Silko has always identified most strongly with her Laguna heritage, stating in an interview with Alan Velie, "I am of mixed-breed ancestry, but what I know is Laguna."[13]
Silko's education included preschool through the fifth grade at Laguna BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) School and followed by a Catholic school, the latter meant a day's drive by her father of 100 miles to avoid the boarding-school experience.[14] Silko went on to receive aBA in English Literature from theUniversity of New Mexico in 1969; she briefly attended theUniversity of New Mexicolaw school before pursuing her literary career full-time.
Silko garnered early literary acclaim for hershort story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds," which was awarded aNational Endowment for the Humanities Discovery Grant. The story continues to be included in anthologies.
During the years 1968 to 1974, Silko wrote and published many short stories andpoems that were featured in herLaguna Woman (1974).
Her other publications, include:Laguna Woman:Poems (1974),Ceremony (1977),Storyteller (1981), and, with the poetJames A. Wright,With the Delicacy and Strength of Lace: Letters Between Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright (1985).Almanac of the Dead, a novel, appeared in 1991, and a collection of essays,Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today, was published in 1996.[15]
Silko wrote a screenplay based on the comic bookHonkytonk Sue, in collaboration with novelistLarry McMurtry, which has not been produced.[16]
Throughout her career as a writer and teacher, she has remained grounded in the history-filled landscape of theLaguna Pueblo. Her experiences in the culture have fueled an interest to preserve cultural traditions and understand the impact of the past on contemporary life. A well-known novelist and poet, Silko's career has been characterized by making people aware of ingrained racism and white cultural imperialism, and a commitment to support women's issues.[17] Her novels have many characters who attempt what some perceive a simple yet uneasy return to balance Native American traditions survivalism with the violence of modern America. The clash of civilizations is a continuing theme in the modern Southwest and of the difficult search for balance that the region's inhabitants encounter.[15]
Her literary contributions are particularly important[18] because they open up theAnglo-European prevailing definitions of the American literary tradition to accommodate the often underrepresented traditions, priorities, and ideas about identity that in a general way characterize manyAmerican Indian cultures and in a more specific way form the bedrock of Silko's Laguna heritage and experience.
During an interview in Germany in 1995, Silko shared the significance of her writings as a continuation of an existing oral tradition within the Laguna people. She specified that her works are not re-interpretations of old legends, but carry the same important messages as when they were told hundreds of years ago. Silko explains that the Laguna view on the passage of time is responsible for this condition, stating, “The Pueblo people and the indigenous people of the Americas see time as round, not as a long linear string. If time is round, if time is an ocean, then something that happened 500 years ago may be quite immediate and real, whereas something inconsequential that happened an hour ago could be far away.”[19]
Leslie Marmon Silko'snovelCeremony was first published byPenguin in March 1977 to much critical acclaim.
The novel tells the story of Tayo, a wounded returningWorld War IIveteran of mixed Laguna-white ancestry following a short stint at a Los Angeles VA hospital. He is returning to the poverty-stricken Laguna reservation, continuing to suffer from "battle fatigue" (shell-shock), and is haunted by memories of his cousin Rocky who died in the conflict during theBataan Death March of 1942. His initial escape from pain leads him toalcoholism, but his Old Grandma and mixed-bloodNavajomedicine-man Betonie help him through Native ceremonies to develop a greater understanding of the world and his place as a Laguna man.
Ceremony has been called aGrail fiction, wherein the hero overcomes a series of challenges to reach a specified goal; but this point of view has been criticized as Eurocentric, since it involves a Native American contextualizing backdrop, and not one based on European-American myths. Silko's writing skill in the novel is deeply rooted in the use of storytelling that pass on traditions and understanding from the old to the new. Fellow Pueblo poetPaula Gunn Allen criticized the book on this account, saying that Silko was divulging secret tribal knowledge reserved for the tribe, not outsiders.[20]
Ceremony gained immediate and long-term acceptance when returningVietnam War veterans took to the novel's theme of coping, healing and reconciliation between races and people that share the trauma of military actions. It was largely on the strength of this work that critic Alan Velie named Silko one of hisFour Native American Literary Masters, along withN. Scott Momaday,Gerald Vizenor andJames Welch.
Ceremony remains a literary work featured on college and universitysyllabi, and one of the few individual works by any author of Native American heritage to have received book-length critical inquiry.
In 1981, Silko releasedStoryteller, a collection of poems and short stories that incorporated creative writing, mythology, and autobiography, which garnered favorable reception as it followed in much the same poetic form as the novelCeremony.
In 1986,Delicacy and Strength of Lace was released. The book is a collected volume of correspondence between Silko and her friendJames Wright whom she met following the publication ofCeremony. The work was edited by Wright's wife, Ann Wright, and released after Wright's death in March 1980.
The novelAlmanac of the Dead was published in 1991. This work took Silko ten years to complete and received mixed reviews. The vision of the book stretches over both American continents and includes theZapatista Army of National Liberation revolutionaries, based in the southern Mexican state ofChiapas, as just one group among a pantheon of characters. The theme of the novel, like that ofCeremony, focuses on the conflict between Anglo-Americans and Native Americans.
Several literary critics have been critical of the novel's depiction ofhomosexuality, based on the fact that the novel features male gay and bisexual characters who are variously abusive, sadistic, and cruel.[21]Almanac of the Dead has not achieved the same mainstream success as its predecessor.
In June 1993, Silko published a limited run ofSacred Water under Flood Plain Press, a self-printing venture by Silko. Each copy ofSacred Water is handmade by Silko using her personal typewriter combining written text set next to poignant photographs taken by the author.
Sacred Water is composed of autobiographical prose, poetry and pueblo mythology focusing on the importance and centrality of water to life.
Silko issued a second printing ofSacred Water in 1994 in order to make the work more accessible to students and academics although it was limited. This edition used printing methods suited for a greater production distribution.
Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today was published by Simon & Schuster in March 1997.
The work is a collection of essays on various topics; including an autobiographical essay of her childhood atLaguna Pueblo and the racism she faced as a mixed blood person; stark criticism directed at PresidentBill Clinton regarding his immigration policies; and praise for the development of and lamentation for the loss of theAztec andMaya codices, along with commentary on Pueblo mythology.
As one reviewer notes, Silko's essays "encompass traditional storytelling, discussions of the power of words to the Pueblo, reminiscences on photography, frightening tales of the U.S. border patrol, historical explanations of the Mayan codices, and socio-political commentary on the relationship of the U.S. government to various nations, including the Pueblo."[22]
The essay "Yellow Woman" concerns a young woman who becomes romantically and emotionally involved with her kidnapper, despite having a husband and children. The story is related to the traditionalLaguna legend/myth of theYellow Woman.
In 1997, Silko ran a limited number of handmade books through Flood Plain Press. LikeSacred Water,Rain was again a combination of short autobiographical prose and poetry inset with her photographs.
The short volume focused on the importance of rain to personal and spiritual survival in the Southwest.
Gardens in the Dunes was published in 1999. The work weaves together themes of feminism, slavery, conquest and botany, while following the story of a young girl named Indigo from the fictional "Sand Lizard People" in the Arizona Territory and her European travels as a summer companion to an affluent White woman named Hattie.
The story is set against the back drop of the enforcement ofIndian boarding schools, the CaliforniaGold Rush and the rise of theGhost Dance Religion.
In 2010, Silko releasedThe Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir. Written using distinctive prose and overall structure influenced by Native American storytelling traditions, the book is a broad-ranging exploration not only of her Laguna Pueblo, Cherokee, Mexican and European family history but also of the natural world, suffering, insight, environmentalism and the sacred. The desert southwest setting is prominent. Although non-fiction, the stylized presentation is reminiscent of creative fiction.
A longtime commentator on Native American affairs, Silko has published many non-fictional articles on Native American affairs and literature.
Silko's two most famous essays are outspoken attacks on fellow writers. In "An Old-Fashioned Indian Attack in Two Parts," first published in Geary Hobson's collectionThe Remembered Earth (1978), Silko accusedGary Snyder of profiting from Native American culture, particularly in his collectionTurtle Island, the name and theme of which was taken fromPueblo mythology.
In 1986, Silko published a review entitled "Here's an Odd Artifact for the Fairy-Tale Shelf," onAnishinaabe writerLouise Erdrich's novelThe Beet Queen. Silko claimed Erdrich had abandoned writing about the Native American struggle forsovereignty in exchange for writing "self-referential,"postmodern fiction.
In 2012, the textbook,Rethinking Columbus, which includes an essay by her, was banned by theTucson Unified School District following a statewide ban on Ethnic and Cultural Studies.[23][24]
In 1965, she marriedRichard C. Chapman, and together, they had a son, Robert Chapman, before divorcing in 1969.[citation needed]
In 1971, she and John Silko were married. They had a son, Casimir Silko.[25] This marriage also ended in divorce.[citation needed]
Leslie Marmon Silko.
