Joy Harjo, US Poet Laureate

Joy Harjo is the 23d Poet Laureate of the United States, and a world renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is the author of plays, children’s books, two memoirs, and nine books of poetry—among them the anthologies When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through and Living Nations, Living Words. As a musician, she has produced seven award-winning albums. She received the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, and the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and the Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is a Tulsa Artist Fellow.