Sherwin Bitsui is a Navajo writer and poet. His book, ''Flood Song'', won the
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 ...
and the
PEN Open Book Award
PEN/Open Book (known as the Beyond Margins Award through 2009) is a program intended to foster racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities, and works to establish access for diverse literary groups to the publishing i ...
.
Life and Education
Bitsui was born in 1974. He is originally from
Whitecone, Arizona.
He is
Navajo; his mother was (Bitter Water Clan), while his father was (Many Goats Clan).
He holds an AFA from the
Institute of American Indian Arts Creative Writing Program. He is the recipient of the 2000-01 Individual Poet Grant from the
Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, the 1999
Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, a
Soul Mountain Residency, a
Lannan Foundation
The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...
Literary Residency Fellowship and a 2006
Whiting Award
The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and ...
. In 2012, he was honored with a
NACF Artist Fellowship in Literature He has served in visiting faculty positions, including distinguished visiting
Visiting Hugo Writer University of Montana an
where he has been on creative writing facult
Since 2013, he has served on the faculty of the Institute of American Indian Arts in the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing program.
He currently lives in
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
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.
Published works
Sherwin has published poems in ''American Poet'', ''The Iowa Review'', ''Frank'' (Paris), ''Lit Magazine'', and elsewhere. His poems were also anthologized in
Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century' and
'.
A common theme within Bitsui's poems is the exploration of different values, concepts and ideas become when experienced in
Navajo as opposed to English.
His book, ''Flood Song'', was published in 2009 and won an American Book Award in 2010. His most recent book of poetry, ''Dissolve'', was published in 2018.
Poetry
* ''Dissolve'', Copper Canyon Press. 2018.
*
*
References
External links
Profile at The Whiting Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bitsui, Sherwin
1975 births
Living people
21st-century American poets
American Book Award winners
Institute of American Indian Arts alumni
Native American poets
Native American painters
Navajo people
People from Fort Defiance, Arizona
People from Holbrook, Arizona
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century Native Americans