Joy Harjo

Annette Van Dyke (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Ed. by Nick Selby, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.6: Indigenous Writing and Culture of North America - United States.
Vol. editors: Joshua Bartlett (High Point University), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Padraig Kirwan (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Dates

Born 9 May 1951
Activity 1973-ongoing

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

First Nations/Indigenous US-American

Activities

Primary

Historian / Chronicler
Poet

Resources

Harjo's Works

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Joy Harjo is best known for her innovative poetry reflecting the complexity of contemporary Native American life. Based upon a belief that it is love that holds the universe together, Harjo’s poetry points to a possible restoration of the ancestral communal relationship between humans and the universe.

The complexity of Harjo’s poetry reflects her tribe’s history (Muskogee Creek) and her personal history. Born as Joy Foster in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1951 to Allen W. Forester (Muskogee Creek) and Wynema Baker Foster (French, Irish and Cherokee), she took the name of her paternal grandmother, Naomi Harjo in 1970. Thrown out of the house at sixteen in a conflict over her parents’ divorce, Harjo attended high school at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico;

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1115 words

Citation: Van Dyke, Annette. "Joy Harjo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 March 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1982, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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