# Laura Tohe

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{{short description|American Navajo writer, poet}}
{{Infobox Author
| name        = Laura Tohe
| image       = Laura Tohe.jpg
| birth_date  = {{birth year and age|1952}}
| education   = University of New Mexico, [University of Nebraska–Lincoln](/source/University_of_Nebraska%E2%80%93Lincoln) (MA, Phd - Creative Writing and Literature)
| awards      = Festival of Words Writers Award (2019)
| nationality = Navajo, America
}}

'''Laura Tohe''' (born 1952) is a Native American author and poet.<ref>{{citation|title=Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature|first1=Jennifer|last1=McClinton-Temple|first2=Alan|last2=Velie|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2010|isbn=9781438120874|pages=361–362|contribution=Tohe, Laura|contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_HeSvlkGFl4C&pg=PA362}}</ref> She is [poet laureate](/source/poet_laureate) of the [Navajo Nation](/source/Navajo_Nation) for 2015–2019,<ref name=amazing>{{citation|url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/best-reads/2015/12/23/navajo-nation-poet-laureate-laura-tohe-asu/77180376/|title=Navajo Nation poet laureate Laura Tohe|department=Amazing Arizonans|newspaper=[The Arizona Republic](/source/The_Arizona_Republic)|first=Kaila|last=White|date=December 23, 2015}}</ref>
and is a [professor emerita](/source/professor_emerita) of English at [Arizona State University](/source/Arizona_State_University).<ref>{{citation|url=https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/62550|title=Laura Tohe|publisher=Arizona State University|accessdate=2018-07-05}}</ref>

Tohe was born in [Fort Defiance, Arizona](/source/Fort_Defiance%2C_Arizona), the daughter of a Navajo [code talker](/source/code_talker).<ref name=amazing/>
She grew up speaking both Diné bizaad/Navajo language and English and was punished in school for speaking her native language due to assimilation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Story Larger than My Own|last=Burroway|first=Janet|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-226-01410-4|location=London|pages=175}}</ref> She earned a B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1975, an M.A. from the [University of Nebraska–Lincoln](/source/University_of_Nebraska%E2%80%93Lincoln) in 1985, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1993. She has been affiliated with Arizona State University since 1994.<ref>{{citation|url=https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/62550/cv|title=Curriculum vitae|accessdate=2018-07-05}}</ref>

==Selected works==
===Books===
*''Making Friends with Water'' (Nosila Press, 1986)
*''No Parole Today'' (West End Press, 1999)<ref>{{citation
 | last = Webster | first = Anthony K.
 | date = June 2010
 | doi = 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2010.01047.x
 | issue = 1
 | journal = Journal of Linguistic Anthropology
 | pages = 39–62
 | title = Imagining Navajo in the Boarding School: Laura Tohe's ''No Parole Today'' and the Intimacy of Language Ideologies
 | volume = 20}}</ref>
*''Tséyi' / Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chelly'' (with photographer Stephen E. Strom, University of Arizona Press, 2005)<ref>{{citation|title=Review of ''Tséyi''|first=Delilah G.|last=Orr|journal=Studies in American Indian Literatures|series=Series 2|volume=20|issue=1|date=Spring 2008|pages=90–92|jstor=20737415}}</ref>
*''Code Talker Stories'' (Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2012)<ref>{{citation|url=https://asunow.asu.edu/20171130-discoveries-code-talker-101-asu-professor-storyteller-offers-insight-history|title=Code Talker 101: ASU professor, storyteller offers insight on history|date=November 30, 2017|first=Suzanne|last=Wilson|newspaper=ASU Now}}</ref>

=== Librettos ===
* Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio (With M. Grey, Naxos Digital Services US Inc. 2009)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559604|title=GREY, M.: Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio (S. Hendricks, Phoenix Symphony, M. Christie) - 8.559604|website=www.naxos.com|access-date=2020-03-02}}</ref>

== Awards ==
* "Tseyi, Deep in the Rock" won the Glyph Award for Best Poetry (2007)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Murphree, Daniel.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1058332562|title=Native America : a State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia.|date=2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-38127-0|oclc=1058332562}}</ref>
*Navajo Nation Poet Laureate (2017) <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2015/10/asu-professor-laura-tohe-becomes-navajo-nation-poet-laureate|title=ASU Professor, Laura Tohe, Becomes Navajo Nation Poet Laureate by Harriet Staff|date=2020-03-09|website=Poetry Foundation|language=en|access-date=2020-03-09}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.lauratohe.com/ Personal website]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tohe, Laura}}
Category:1952 births
Category:Living people
Category:American librettists
Category:Native American poets
Category:Navajo women writers
Category:Navajo writers
Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni
Category:University of New Mexico alumni
Category:20th-century American poets
Category:20th-century Native American writers
Category:20th-century Native American women writers
Category:21st-century Native American women writers
Category:Municipal poets laureate in the United States
Category:21st-century Native American writers
Category:Native American women poets
Category:21st-century American poets
Category:21st-century American women poets
Category:20th-century American women poets

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Laura Tohe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Tohe) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Tohe?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.