Laura Tohe

Poet, Writer, Librettist, Scholar of Indigenous American Literature

Navajo Nation Poet Laureate

BIO

Laura Tohe is Diné. She is Tsénahabiłnii, Sleepy Rock People clan, and born for the Tódich’inii, Bitter Water clan. She grew up at Crystal, New Mexico near the Chuska Mountains on the Diné homeland.

Her published books include Making Friends with Water (chapbook); No Parole Today, a book on boarding schools; Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community, co-edited with Heid Erdrich; Tseyí Deep in the Rock, in collaboration with photographer, Stephen Strom; and Code Talker Stories, an oral history book with the remaining Navajo Code Talkers. The Phoenix Symphony commissioned her to write the libretto for Enemy Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio, which made its 2008 world premiere as part of the Phoenix Symphony’s 60th anniversary. A compact disc recording of Enemy Slayer is on the Naxos classical music label. It received rave reviews by the Arizona Republic and was called “a triumph” by Opera Today.

A poet, writer, and librettist, Tohe's work has been published in such journals as Ploughshares, New Letters, cream city review, Red Ink, World Literature Today and many others. Her work has appeared in the U.S., Canada, South America and in Europe with French, Dutch and Italian translations. She has read her poetry internationally in the U.S., Europe, and South America. Laura holds a doctorate degree in creative writing, Indigenous American Literature, and American Literature.

Laura is Professor with Exemplar Distinction in the English Department at Arizona State University and is an Arizona Speaks presenter for the Arizona Humanities that awarded her the 2006 Dan Schilling Public Scholar award.

In 2015 Laura was honored as the Navajo Nation Poet Laureate for 2015-2017, a title given to her in celebration and recognition of her work as a poet and writer.

BOOKS & WRITINGS

Code Talker Stories, Rio Nuevo Press

Code Talker Stories, my most recent book, is an oral history book that contains storytelling interviews with 20 of the remaining Navajo Code Talkers who devised a secret code using the Navajo language that was never deciphered during WWII. It is a bilingual text in English and Navajo with images by Deborah O’Grady.

Making Friends with Water

Out of Print

Her chapbook on water, Making Friends with Water was translated into modern dance by The Moving Company in Omaha, Nebraska and was a Prize Winner for Dance Performance from the Institute of Creative Research and Sport Art Academy.

No Parole Today, West End Press

This book on boarding schools, No Parole Today, won the 1999 Poetry of the Year awarded by the Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers. Widely taught in colleges and universities, it is in its 5th printing.

Tseyi': Deep in the Rock, Reflections on Canyon de Chelly, Stephen E. Strom (photographer), Univ. of Arizona Press

Tseyí Deep in the Rock, in collaboration with photographer, Stephen Strom contains poetry and images. It won the Glyph Award for Best Poetry and Best Book by the Arizona Book Association and was listed as a Southwest Book of the Year by Tucson-Pima Public Library.

Sister Nations, Heid Erdrich and Laura Tohe (Editors), New Rivers Press

She co-edited with Heid Erdrich, Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community, an anthology of poetry and fiction by Indigenous women. Published by the Minnesota Historical Society, it was nominated for an award.

Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio, Laura Tohe (Libretto) and Mark Grey (Composer)

In 2007 the Phoenix Symphony commissioned me to write the libretto for Enemy Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio, which made its 2008 world premiere as part of the Phoenix Symphony’s 60th anniversary in collaboration with composer, Mark Grey, sung by Scott Hendricks, baritone, conducted by Michael Christie, the Phoenix Symphony’s Virginia Piper Music Director and with images by Deborah O’Grady. A compact disc recording of Enemy Slayer is on the Naxos classical music label. Enemy Slayer was part of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado in July 2008 and was also performed by the Salt Lake Choral Artists at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah in 2009.