LESLIE MARMON sILKO

Photo by Robyn McDaniels

“You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories”

Leslie Marmon Silko was born March 5, 1948 in Albuquerque. She grew up in Laguna Pueblo, and was of Laguna, Mexican, and white descent. She began writing at a young age, attended law school for a short time, married and divored twice, and had two children. Silko has been counted as one of the 135 most important women writers in the history of the world and has won many writing awards. She now lives on a ranch outside Tucson with a friend and many animals.

EDUCATION:

Silko was taken from a poor indian school at a young age and attended a parochial school in Albuquerque, a 100 mile round trip. After high school she attended the University of New Mexico, and law school for a short time before she decided to become a professional writer. After college, Silko taught at a few Universities, including UNM.

PROFESSIONAL AND ACTIVIST HISTORY:

Silko was not a typical women’s activist. In fact, when searching for information on her, you will find nothing about a strong career in women’s activism or the political changes she brought about. Silko’s influence is subtler, yet just as powerful as anything else. Silko is a storyteller, and illustrates the strength and passion of women through her writing. A central character in her book Yellow Woman, is Kochinnenako, a liberating figure, especially for young women attempting to understand individual longings and desire in a cultural context. Perhaps the reason Silko is so important to women is her upbringing and the non-traditional gender roles which influence her life and writing. In a 1976 interview with Per Seyersted when she was asked why she wrote about many male characters she said

“I never thought of myself as having any sort of gender one way or the other. I mean, certainly I was aware that I was a girl, but if you’ve noticed my grandmother, she is in and out and she is seventy-four-- when she was growing up she was a Model A mechanic, and even now, my uncle has a coin-operated laundry here and she fixes those machines and she carries heavy things...My father took me deer-hunting when I was seven years old . . . and I can remember when the crews would come to plaster the house, that they were women”

Silko praises her pueblo’s fluid gender boundaries and it’s matriarchal culture, both of which she sees as encouraging her development. “Growing up in a close community of powerful, creative, and hard working women . . .helped her find her voice as a storyteller, part of the onging tradition” (Graulich 9). Paula Gunn Allen explores the Yellow Woman stories calling them “always female-centered, always told from Yellow Woman’s point of view implying that the story belongs to the young woman, focuses on her needs, her perspective and her changes” (Graulich 11).

PUBLICATIONS:

Silko’s first published work was a short story called “Tony’s Story” in Thunderbird, UNM’s student literary magazine in 1969. She then published “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” in 1969. In 1974, she published seven stories in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” and her first book, a collection of poetry, “Laguna Woman”. In 1977, while living in Alaska, she published her first novel, “Ceremony” and in 1981 “Storyteller” was published. In 1991, her largest piece, “The Almanac of the Dead” was published. In 1993 “Sacred Water” was published and during 1996 “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today”. In 1999 her most recent piece was published “Gardens in the Dunes”. Throughout these years, Silko received many awards and published many articles.

WORKS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Interviews:

“A Conversation with Leslie Marmon Silko.” With Lawerence J. Evers and Denny Carr.

Sun Tracks: An American Indian Literary Magazine 3.1 (1976)

“Leslie Silko: Storyteller.” With James Fitzgerald and John Hudak. Persona (1980)

“Stories and Their Tellers.” With Dexter Fisher. The Third Woman: Minority Women

Writers of the United States. Edited by Dexter Fisher. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,

1980.

“The Novel and Oral Tradition: An Interview with Leslie Marmon Silko.” With Elaine

Jahner. Book Forum: An International Transdisciplinary Quarterly (1981).

“Two Interviews with Leslie Marmon Silko.” With Per Seyersted. American Studies in

Scandinavia (1981).

“A Leslie Marmon Silko Interview.” With Kin Barnes. The Journal of Ethnic Studies

(1986).

“Leslie Marmon Silko.” With Donna Marie Perry. In Backtalk: Women Writers Speak

Out. New Brunswick, NY:Rutgers University Press, 1993.

“Almanac of the Dead:An interview with Leslie Marmon Silko.” With Laura Coltelli,

1994.

“An Interview with Leslie Marmon Silko.” With Stephen Pett. Short Story 2.2 (1994).

There are over forty other written works about Leslie Marmon Silko, which can be found on pages 186-190 in Helen Jaskoski’s book, Leslie Marmon Silko: A study of the Short Fiction.

FILMS:

In 1978, Silko was the subject of the documentary film, Running on the Edge of the Rainbow.

WORKS CITED:

Graulich, Melody. Yellow Woman. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1993.

Jaskoski, Helen. Leslie Marmon Silko: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York:

Twayne Publishers, 1998.

http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/SILKOlesliemarmon.html

http://literati.net/Silko/

“Two Interviews with Leslie Marmon Silko.” With Per Seyersted. American Studies in

Scandinavia, 1981.