# of Words: 337

Leslie Marmon Silko is a fairly rad chick, also quite the accomplished writer to boot--but she likely would not tell you any of that himself. When she released Ceremony in 1977, she was unwilling to accept the name of "first female Native American novelist." As she points out in this interview, a whole lot about Native American history has been lost.

"There could have been a Native American girl long ago that we don't know about," Silko speculates. Sounds like someone's been eating her fair share of humble pie.

Nevertheless, Ceremony earned Silko an area at the history books and caused The New York Times book review to phone her "the most accomplished Native American writer of her generation." Whoa, that is some heavy compliments, particularly when you consider that Silko's generation was responsible for what could come to be known as the "Native American Renaissance." And Leslie Marmon Silko was right in the center of everything.

Back in 1981 Silko became one of the first recipients of the MacArthur Foundation Grant, which afterwards came to be known informally as the "Genius Grant." We are still excited about that prize we have in the conclusion of little league football when we were seven.

However, each one of these accolades aside, what really impresses us about Silko's writing is the way she uses it to handle the prickly theme of race. The author's knack for broadcasting the tumultuous history of relations between Puebloans and white Americans likely has a great deal to do with her own mixed heritage (she is Laguna Pueblo, Mexican, and Anglo American). Throughout her characters, which also embody similar multiethnic identities, and she discusses racial tension and conflict with honesty and sensitivity.

While Ceremony was clearly vital in the 1970s, it is possibly even more applicable today. After all, the USA has its original multi-racial President, also more young Americans are identifying themselves as being of "mixed race" than ever before. We don't think that it's too much of a stretch to call Silko a visionary.

Related Papers

Cyrano De Bergerac Edmond Rostand

Take out your hankies--you're going to be equally yelling with laughter and yelling with severe sadness before this play is finished. Seriously: select an emotion and Cyrano de Bergerac will have you sense it. You wish to swoon? You would like to feel scorn? Pity? Cyrano's body difficulties are you covered. Stress? There's a dang battle scene that is filled with humor (and blood and guts). Nevertheless, the significant emotion you'll feel throughout the reading (or viewing, in case you're......Read More

Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen is sort of a big deal. Following William Shakespeare, he is the most frequently produced dramatist ever in history. A Norwegian playwright writing in the last half of the 19th century, Ibsen is known as "the father of modern drama." Because he wrote in a then new realist fashion -- covering everyday topics and ordinary folks -- he set the platform for many realist authors to come, among them the very famous Anton Chekhov. Ibsen demonstrated that with quite realistic settings,......Read More

The Diary Of A Young Girl Anne Frank

Welcome to one of the most well-known and influential books ever released. The writer? A fifteen-year-old woman named Anne Frank. The book? Her journal. Yup. This is easily the most famed diary ever maintained. This journal is the story of Anne-- a young Jewish woman and aspiring author in hiding from the Nazis. Anne's journal, a devastating and relatable coming-of-age story, was left behind in the Secret Annex, but kept protected by a buddy, Miep Gies. Anne's father, Otto Frank, was the......Read More

Related Topics