The University of New Mexico

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Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627
kwent2@unm.edu

July 5, 2006

Famed Diné Poet, Writer Luci Tapahonso to Speak at UNM

Luci Tapahonso, Diné poet, writer and professor will speak on Wednesday, July 12, at 6:30 p.m. in the West Wing of Zimmerman Library on the University of New Mexico campus. Her talk, “Saah: Luminous Beads of Beauty” is part of the Summer Sunset Lecture Series sponsored by University Libraries and the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.

Tapahonso is currently a professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson , and is the author of five books of poetry and three children's books.

Originally from Shiprock, New Mexico, she grew up in a family of 11 children where her first language was Navajo. Tapahonso attended UNM, where she majored in English, received both bachelor's and master's degrees and has taught English, Women's Studies and American Indian Studies.

Tapahanso is active both locally and nationally, serving on the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, and as a manuscript reviewer for the University of Oklahoma Press, the University of Arizona Press, the University of Nebraska Press and Cornell University Press. She serves on a number of committees at the University of Arizona and speaks to local groups.

Her talk at Zimmerman is free and open to the public.

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