Leslie Marmon Silko (born Leslie Marmon on March 5, 1948 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is a Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance. She received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 1981.
Silko is 1/4 Laguna Pueblo Native American (a Keres speaking tribe), the rest of her ancestry being European American and Mexican American. Her father is Lee Marmon, a notable photographer. As such, she grew up on the edge of pueblo society both literally – her family’s house was at the edge of the reservation – and figuratively, not being allowed to participate in various rituals or join many of the pueblo societies. However, she was educated by her grandmother and aunts in the traditional stories of the Laguna people, and as a result always identified most strongly with the native part of her ancestry, saying in an interview with Alan Velie that "I am of mixed-breed ancestry, but what I know is Laguna".
She was educated at Catholic school in Albuquerque, and went on to receive a BA from the University of New Mexico in 1969.
Silko's Works
Laguna Women Poems (1974)
Ceremony (1977)
Western Stories (1980)
Storyteller (1981)
Delicacy And Strength of Lace Letters (1986)
Almanac of the Dead: A Novel (1991)
Yellow Woman (1993)
Sacred Water Narratives and Pictures (1993)
Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit Essays (1996)
Love poem and Slim Man Canyon (1996)
Gardens in the Dunes (1999)
