Layli Long Soldier is an
Oglala Lakota
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning 'to scatter one's own' in Lakota language, Lakota) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota people, Dakota, make up the Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A ...
poet, writer, feminist, artist, and activist.
Early life and education
Long Soldier grew up in the Four Corners region of the Southwest, where she continues to live and work to advocate against the continued, systematic oppression of Indigenous populations. She graduated from the
Institute of American Indian Arts
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed ...
with a Bachelor's in Fine Arts and went on to earn a Master's at
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...
.
Career
In 2010, Layli Long Soldier published the
chapbook
A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...
''Chromosomory''.
In 2013, she participated in the art exhibit ''Pte Oyate'' at the
Red Cloud Indian School, alongside
Roger Broer,
Michael Two Bulls, and
Keith Brave Heart.
In 2015, Long Soldier joined the faculty in the English department of
Diné College
Diné College is a public tribal land-grant college based in Tsaile, Arizona, serving the Navajo Nation. It offers associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, academic certificates, and one master's degree.
History
Diné College opened in 196 ...
.
Long Soldier is an editor of the journal ''
Drunken Boat
(''The Drunken Boat'') is a Symbolist poem written in the summer of 1871 by French poet Arthur Rimbaud, then aged sixteen. The poem, one-hundred lines long, with four alexandrines per each of its twenty-five quatrains, describes the drifting a ...
'' and the poetry editor for
Kore Press
Kore Press is an American nonprofit literary press founded in 1993 and located in Tucson, Arizona. The press publishes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by women, transgender or gender non-conforming women. Kore Press's output includes boo ...
.
Her first volume of poetry, ''