HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Elizabeth Woody (born 1959) is an American
Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest fe ...
/ Warm Springs/ Wasco/
Yakama The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Their Ya ...
artist, author, and educator. In March 2016, she was the first Native American to be named
poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...
of Oregon by Governor
Kate Brown Katherine Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 38th governor of Oregon since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th district of the ...
.


Background

Elizabeth Woody was born in
Ganado, Arizona Ganado ( nv, ) is a chapter of the Navajo Nation and census-designated place (CDP) in Apache County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,210 at the 2010 census. Ganado is part of the Fort Defiance Agency, of the Bureau of Indian ...
, in 1959.Lester, Patrick D. ''The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995: 628. . She is born for Tódích'íinii (Bitter Water clan). Her maternal grandmother belongs to the Milee-thlama (People of the Hot Springs) and Wyampum peoples (People of the Echo of Water Upon Rocks). Her maternal grandfather's people were the middle Columbia River Chinook peoples. After studying at the Institute of American Indian Arts in
Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label= Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The name “S ...
, from 1980 to 1983, she earned a bachelor's degree in Humanities with an emphasis in English from
Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...
in
Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...
. In 2012 she received a Master of Public Administration Degree through the Executive Leadership Institute of the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She is a founding and current member of the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is a recognized Native American tribe made of three tribes who put together a confederation. They live on and govern the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of Oregon. Tribes The confeder ...
in Oregon.


Career

In 1992, she was an invited writer at the Returning the Gift Festival of Native Writers and a featured poet at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. James Welch, editor of the spring 1994 issue ''Ploughshares'', includes her poetry that journal. From 1994 to 1996, Woody taught creative writing at IAIA. She has worked in various programs teaching workshops, mentoring, as a consultant and lectures throughout the country. Woody has worked with the Telluride Native Writer's Forum, reading, panels, and workshops for Northwest Wordcraft Circle, Neah Bay, WA and Newport, Oregon; Southwest Native American High School Students, Telluride, CO; Young Writer's Conference and Performance, readings, illustration, poetry and short story workshops for Northwest Native American high school writers at Paschal Sherman Indian School, Omak, Washington; Grey Hills Academy Diné Fine Arts and Drama Festival, Tuba City, Arizona; and Flight of the Mind Writing Workshops for Women, McKenzie Bridge, Oregon. As an artist, Woody has exhibited regionally and nationally. She participated in the Pacific Rim Gathering that culminated in a touring exhibition in Hité'emlkiliiksix, "Within the Circle of the Rim: Nations Gathering on Common Ground". She has shown in "Submuloc Wohs/Columbus Show" and "For the Seventh Generation: Native American Artists Counter the Quincentenary",
Columbus, New York Columbus is a town in Chenango County, New York, United States. The population was 975 at the 2010 census. Columbus is in the northeastern corner of the county and is northeast of Norwich. History The area of Columbus was first settled around ...
. Both exhibitions toured. In Oregon, Woody served on the Northwest Native American Arts Services Task Force, sponsored by the Eastern Oregon Regional Arts Council and was one of the founding members of the Northwest Native American Writers Association. She was selected to be an apprentice in the Oregon Folk Arts Master-Apprenticeship, to learn traditional basket weaving from Margaret Jim-Pennah. Woody has also served as a juror for their program for two years, and has served on multi-disciplinary art fellowship jury panels for several arts organizations in the Pacific Northwest. Woody is a board member of Soapstone, Inc., a women writer's retreat. She served on the original Willamette University Advisory Council for Native Programs located in Salem, Oregon, and served as founding secretary on the founding board of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation endowed by the Ford Foundation. She also served on the inaugural Advisory Board for
Lewis and Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & C ...
Graduate School of Education and Counseling conference, "Indigenous Ways of Knowing", and as a leadership circle advisor for the Ford Foundation's feasibility study on a national Native American arts and culture fund. In 2005 Woody was approved by resolution to serve on the steering committee for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians proposed Northwest Tribes Indian Policy Center. She also advises the Evergreen State College Native Arts Council who hosts a Native American Arts Fair at the
Washington State History Museum The Washington State History Museum is a history museum located in downtown Tacoma, Washington, United States. It is operated by the Washington State Historical Society under the official approval of the Washington State Legislature. The muse ...
. She completed the Master of Public Administration Program in 2012 (emphasis in Environmental Policy, and Natural Resources Management) at the Hatfield School of Government at
Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two dec ...
. She formerly worked as Director of the Indigenous Leadership Program at the non-profit environmental organization, Ecotrust of
Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...
for the Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award. After twelve years of service, and seven years of developing the program, Elizabeth moved to the "National Science Foundation's Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction located at
Oregon Health and Science University Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
. She worked as the K-12 Program Coordinator for three years. She is a program officer at the
Meyer Memorial Trust Fred G. Meyer (February 21, 1886 – September 2, 1978)"Fred Meyer, Retail Empire Builder, Dies at 92" (September 3, 1978). '' The Sunday Oregonian'', p. 1. was an American businessman who founded the Oregon-based Fred Meyer store chain, wh ...
located in Portland, Oregon.


Awards

Woody received an
American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...
in 1990 for her book ''Hand into Stone'' from the Before Columbus Foundation. This book has been republished, including new prose and poetry, as ''Seven Hands Seven Hearts''. In 1993 she received a Medicine Pathways for the Future Fellowship/Kellogg Fellowship from the American Indian Ambassadors Program of the Americans for Indian Opportunity. She is a recipient of the William Stafford Memorial Award for Poetry from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and was a finalist in the
Oregon Book Award The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. ...
s in poetry for ''Luminaries of the Humble'' in 1995. She held a Brandywine Visiting Artist Fellowship in 1986, and in 1997 she was awarded a J.T. Stewart Award and Fellowship by
Hedgebrook Hedgebrook is a rural retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, Washington, founded in 1988. Hedgebrook's artist-in-residence program accepts up to 80 writers each year, who spend two to four weeks in residence working on their diverse writi ...
, a retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, Washington. In May 1997, she participated in a residency sponsored by Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, California. The governor named her Poet Laureate of Oregon starting April 2016 for two years.


Books by Elizabeth Woody


Poetry

* Luminaries of the Humble, (Sun Tracks, Vol 30), University of Arizona Press.
Review by Judy Elsley
in ''Weber Studies'' *''Seven Hands Seven Hearts'', Eighth Mountain Press. *''Hand into Stone: Poems'', Contact II Publications. ** Reviewed by
Joy Harjo Joy Harjo ( ; born May 9, 1951) is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetr ...
in ''Calyx'', 12, no. 3 (1990): 95-97 ** Reviewed in ''Mid-American Review'', XI, 1, Fall 1990. *''Old Shirts & New Skins'' Elizabeth illustrated this book of
Sherman Alexie Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane- Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from se ...
poems.Old Shirts & New Skins.
(retrieved 22 May 2009)


Anthologies

*''Renewing Salmon Nation's Food Traditions'', Gary Paul Nabhan (Editor), Ecotrust, Portland, OR. 2006. *''River of Memory: The Everlasting Columbia'', William D. Layman (editor), Washington Univ. Pr. *''A Song to the Creator: Traditional Arts of Native American Women of the Plateau'', Lillian A. Ackerman (Editor), Univ. Oklahoma Press. *''Oregon Salmon: Essay on the State of the Fish at the Turn of the Millennium''. Essay, Oregon Trout, Portland, OR, 2001 *''Salmon Nation'', Edward C. Wolf and Seth Zuckerman, Ecotrust. Portland, OR. 1999.
Publisher's page
*''When the Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans'', Lee Francis (Editor), Simon & Schuster. *''Dreaming the Dawn: Conversations With Native Artists and Activists'', E. K. Caldwell, University of Nebraska Press. *''First Fish, First People: Salmon Tales of the North Pacific'', Judith Roche and Meg McHutchison (Editors), University of Washington Press. *''Speaking for the Generations: Native Writers on Writing'' (Sun Tracks Books), University of Arizona Press. *''Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals'', Linda Hogan, Deena Metzger, Brenda Peterson (Editors), Ballantine & Random House *''Earth, Wind, and Fire: Harry Fonseca'', Jonathan Batkin (Editor), Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe. *''Native American Art in the Twentieth Century: Makers, Meanings, Histories'', Jackson Rushing (Editor), Routledge LTD. *''The Writer's Journal: 40 Contemporary Authors and Their Journals'', Sheila Bender (Editor), Delta. *''Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writing of North America'', Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird (editors), W.W. Norton. *''Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry'', John E. Smelcer, D. L. Birchfield (Editors), Salmon Run Press *''A Gathering of Spirit: A Collection by North American Indian Women'', Beth Brant (Editor), Firebrand Books. *''Home Places: Contemporary Native American Writing from Sun Tracks'' (Sun Tracks, Vol 31), Larry Evers,
Ofelia Zepeda Ofelia Zepeda (born in Stanfield, Arizona, 1952) is a Tohono O'odham poet and intellectual. She is Regents' Professor of Tohono O'odham language and linguistics and Director of the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) at The ...
(Editors), University of Arizona Press. *''Dancing on the Rim of the World : An Anthology of Contemporary Northwest Native American Writing'' (Sun Tracks, Vol 19), Andrea Lerner (Editor), University of Arizona Press. *''Returning the Gift: Poetry and Prose from the First North American Native Writers' Festival'', (Sun Tracks Books, No 29) University of Arizona Press. *''The World begins Here: Oregon Short Fiction'', (Oregon Literature Series, Vol 1), Glen A. Love (Editor), Oregon State University Press. *''Varieties of Hope: An Anthology of Oregon Prose'', (Oregon Literature Series, Vol 3), Gordon B. Dodds (Editor), Oregon State University Press. *''From Here We Speak: An Anthology of Oregon Poetry'' (Oregon Literature Series ; V. 4),
Ingrid Wendt Ingrid Wendt (born 1944), is an American writer and poet. Personal life Married to Ralph Salisbury, she lives in Eugene, Oregon. Education Wendt graduated from Cornell College in Iowa in 1966, and that year she moved to Oregon. Awards ...
, Primus St. John (Editors), Oregon State University Press. *''The Stories We Tell: An Anthology of Oregon Folk Literature'' (Oregon Literature Series Vol. 5), Suzi Jones, Jarold Ramsey (Editors), Oregon State University Press. *''A Circle of Nations: Voices and Visions of American Indians'', John Gattuso (Editor), Beyond Words Publishing Co. *''We, the human beings: 27 contemporary native American artists'', Wooster Art Museum. *''Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories'', Craig Lesley, Katheryn Stavrakis (Editor) Dell Books *''The Clouds Threw This Light'', Phillip Foss (Editor), Institute of American Indian Arts Press. *''Songs from This Earth on Turtle's Back: An Anthology of Poetry by American Indian Writers'', Joseph Bruchac (Editor), Greenfield Review Press


Interviews and critical essays

*''The Nature of Native American Poetry'', Norma C. Wilson, Univ. New Mexico Press. *''Here First'', Brian Swann, Arnold Krupat (Editors), Random House. *"Contrary Iconography", Jackson Rushing, ''New Art Examiner'', Summer 1994. *"The Earth is Richer for this Voice", Interview by Kim Caldwell in ''Raven's Chronicles'', Winter 93-94.


Biographical information

*''Notable Native Americans'', Sharon Malinowski & George H.J. Abrams (Editors), Gale Research. *''The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters'', Patrick D. Lester, University of Oklahoma Press. *''St. James Guide to Native North American Artists'', Roger Matuz (Editor), Gale Research. *''Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television'', Volume 135, Susan M. Trosky (Editor), Gale Research.


Videos


''Salmon: Why Bother?''
from Sea Grant

from Mimbres Fever Productions


Work published in translation

* ''Les Cahiers- de poesie recontre, 25 special, La poesie Amerindienne'', May 1989, Manuel Van Theinen (Editor), France. * ''Elenco Racconti Raccolta Scrittrici Indianoamericane'', Laura Coltelli, Dr. Cinzia Biagotti (Editors), Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, Publisher, Firenze, Italy.


References


External links



on ''Voices in the Gaps''
A short biography
from the Internet Public Library's Native American Authors Project

to the WY.KAN.USH.PUM Gala

''Memory and Other Familiar Words''

discusses collaboration with Liz Woody
The Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership in Conservation

Western Indigenous Artists Network

The Oregon History Project


talk given by Erik Muller at Willamette University {{DEFAULTSORT:Woody, Elizabeth 1959 births Native American writers Native American painters Institute of American Indian Arts faculty Living people American women painters People from Ganado, Arizona Native American women artists American Book Award winners 21st-century American women artists American women academics Native American people from Arizona Native American women writers Writers from Arizona Painters from Arizona Academics from Arizona 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native Americans