Marilou Awiakta

Last updated
Marilou Awiakta
Born (1936-01-24) January 24, 1936 (age 88)
Knoxville
OccupationPoet, author
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Tennessee B.A. magna cum laude, in English and French, 1958
ChildrenThree children

Marilou Awiakta (born January 24, 1936, in Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American writer known for her poetry and essays about her experiences growing up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. [1]

Contents

Biography and career

Marilou Awiakta is the seventh generation of her family to grow up in Appalachia, mostly in East Tennessee. Since 1730, her family has lived in the mountainous area of the state. [2] She writes that she is of Scotch-Irish, Appalachian, and Eastern Band Cherokee descent.

Awiakta graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1958 receiving a B.A. magna cum laude, in both English and French. [3]

Awards

Books

Analysis

Awiakta's poetry is analysed at length in Our Fire Survives the Storm by Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation).[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lois McMaster Bujold</span> American speculative fiction author (born 1949)

Lois McMaster Bujold is an American speculative fiction writer. She is an acclaimed writer, having won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella The Mountains of Mourning won both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. In the fantasy genre, The Curse of Chalion won the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature and was nominated for the 2002 World Fantasy Award for best novel, and both her fourth Hugo Award and second Nebula Award were for Paladin of Souls. In 2011 she was awarded the Skylark Award. She has won two Hugo Awards for Best Series, in 2017 for the Vorkosigan Saga and in 2018 for the World of the Five Gods. The Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 36th SFWA Grand Master in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Penn Warren</span> American poet, novelist, and literary critic

Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tennessee</span> U.S. state

Tennessee, officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the southwest, and Missouri to the northwest. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. Tennessee is geographically, culturally, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions of East, Middle, and West Tennessee. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, and anchors its largest metropolitan area. Other major cities include Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Clarksville. Tennessee's population as of the 2020 United States census is approximately 6.9 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appalachia</span> Geographic region in the Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States

Appalachia is a geographic region located in the central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. It stretches from the western Catskill Mountains of New York state into Pennsylvania, continuing on through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains into northern Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. In 2021, the region was home to an estimated 26.3 million people, of whom roughly 80% were white.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Smoky Mountains</span> American mountain range along North Carolina/Tennessee border

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains, and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934 and, with over 11 million visits per year, is the most visited national park in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Tennessee</span> Geographic region of Tennessee

East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely Bledsoe, Cumberland, and Marion. East Tennessee is entirely located within the Appalachian Mountains, although the landforms range from densely forested 6,000-foot (1,800 m) mountains to broad river valleys. The region contains the major cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee's third and fourth largest cities, respectively, and the Tri-Cities, the state's sixth largest population center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharyn McCrumb</span> American writer (born 1948)

Sharyn McCrumb is an American writer whose books celebrate the history and folklore of Appalachia. McCrumb is the winner of numerous literary awards, and the author of the Elizabeth McPherson mystery series, the Ballad series, and the St. Dale series.

Denise Giardina is an American novelist. Her book Storming Heaven was a Discovery Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and received the 1987 W. D. Weatherford Award for the best published work about the Appalachian South. The Unquiet Earth received an American Book Award and the Lillian Smith Book Award for fiction. Her 1998 novel Saints and Villains was awarded the Boston Book Review fiction prize and was semifinalist for the International Dublin Literary Award. Giardina is an ordained Episcopal Church deacon, a community activist, and a former candidate for governor of West Virginia.

Ann Pancake is an American fiction writer and essayist. She has published a novel, short stories and essays describing the people and atmosphere of Appalachia, often from the first-person perspective of those living there. While fictional, her short stories contribute to an understanding of poverty in the 20th century, and well as the historical roots of American and rural poverty. Much of Pancake's writing also focuses on the destruction caused by natural resource extraction, particularly in Appalachia, and the lives of the people affected.

Irene McKinney was an American poet and editor, and served as the Poet Laureate of the state of West Virginia from her appointment by Governor Gaston Caperton in January 1994 until her death.

Wilma Dykeman Stokely was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction whose works chronicled the people and land of Appalachia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikki Giovanni</span> American poet, writer and activist

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She has won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award for her poetry album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 "Living Legends". Giovanni is a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appalachian studies</span> Academic area studies field

Appalachian studies is the area studies field concerned with the Appalachian region of the United States.

Rebecca Caudill Ayars was an American writer of children's literature. More than twenty of her books were published. Tree of Freedom was a Newbery Honor Book in 1950. A Pocketful of Cricket, illustrated by Evaline Ness, was a Caldecott Honor Book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appalachian Americans</span> Ethnic group in the United States

Appalachian Americans, or simply Appalachians, are Americans living in the geocultural area of Appalachia in the eastern United States, or their descendants.

<i>Appalachian Review</i> American literary magazine

Appalachian Review, formerly known as Appalachian Heritage, is a literary quarterly that "showcases the work of emerging and established writers throughout Appalachia and beyond."

Jim Wayne Miller was an American poet and educator who had a major influence on literature in the Appalachian region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancella Bickley</span> American historian

Ancella Radford Bickley is an American historian born in Huntington, West Virginia. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from West Virginia State College, now West Virginia State University in 1950, a master's degree in English from Marshall University in 1954, and an Ed.D. in English from West Virginia University in 1974. She is involved in the preservation of African American history in West Virginia.

Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom is a 1993 book by Marilou Awiakta. It uses poems, essays, and drawings to explore themes of unity and diversity. Awiakta uses the Cherokee story of corn as a "compass-story" to keep readers oriented throughout her lessons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bettie M. Sellers</span> American poet

Bettie M. Sellers was an American poet known for her poems about nature, especially about the North Georgia and Southern Appalachia region.

References

  1. "Archived copy". www.ipl.org. Archived from the original on 12 August 2002. Retrieved 6 June 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Kelley, Saundra Gerrell (2011). Southern Appalachian Storytellers: Interviews with Sixteen Keepers of the Oral Tradition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishing. p. 33.
  3. Notable Alumni: Marilou Awiakta (1958) | Torchbearer Archived 2010-06-02 at the Wayback Machine
  4. http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=A048%5B%5D
  5. "Marilou Awiakta at Shepherd College". Archived from the original on 2010-05-29. Retrieved 2010-02-22.