Laura Tohe (born 1952) is a Native American author and poet. She is poet laureate of the Navajo Nation for 2015–2019, and is a professor emerita of English at Arizona State University.
Tohe was born in Fort Defiance, Arizona, the daughter of a Navajo code talker. She grew up speaking both Diné bizaad/Navajo language and English and was punished in school for speaking her native language due to assimilation. She earned a B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1975, an M.A. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1985, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1993. She has been affiliated with Arizona State University since 1994.
Selected works Books Making Friends with Water (Nosila Press, 1986) No Parole Today (West End Press, 1999) Tséyi' / Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chelly (with photographer Stephen E. Strom, University of Arizona Press, 2005) Code Talker Stories (Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2012)
Librettos Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio (With M. Grey, Naxos Digital Services US Inc. 2009)
Awards "Tseyi, Deep in the Rock" won the Glyph Award for Best Poetry (2007) Navajo Nation Poet Laureate (2017)
References
External links Personal website