Deborah A. Miranda
Encyclopedia
Deborah Miranda is a Native American writer and poet. Her father, Alfred Edward Robles Mirada is from the Esselen
and Chumash people, native to the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez/Monterery, California area. Her mother, Madgel Eleanor (Yeoman) Miranda was of French and Jewish ancestry.
Nation is currently petitioning the federal government for recognition.
Miranda's mother died in November 2001.
Deborah Miranda has two children, Miranda and Danny. Her partner is Margo Solod, a poet and cook from Virginia
.
in 2001. She taught at Pacific Lutheran University
for three years. Miranda is currently Assistant Professor of English at Washington and Lee University
, where she teaches Creative Writing (poetry), Native American Literatures, Women's Literature, Poetry as Literature, and composition.
Deborah Miranda has been selected for the 2007-2008 Institute of American Cultures (IAC) Visiting Scholars Award at the University of California - Los Angeles. She will research and teach at UCLA during her sabbatical.
Miranda's work has been published in the Bellingham Review, Bellowing Ark, California Quarterly, Calyx, Callaloo, Cimarron Review, News From Native California, Poets On, Raven Chronicles, Sojurner, Weber Studies Journal, West Wind Review, and Wilderness.
The Zen of La Llorona was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award in 2005.
In 2001 Miranda received the Connie Leach Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in achieving a Doctoral Degree from the Seattle Indian Services Commission. In 2000, she was named Writer of the Year for Poetry for her book, Indian Cartography, by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers. She also received a Hedgebrook
Writers Residency that year.
Miranda received the First Book Awards' Diane Decorah Award for Poetry in 1997 from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
. In 1995, she was the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference Prizewinner in poetry. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 1994. In 1993, she won the 49th Parallel Poetry Prize and obtained a Tacoma Arts Commission Grant to plan and carry out a day long arts workshop for mothers.
Deer, a chapbook.
Indian Cartography, Greenfield Review Press, 1999, Cover Art by Kathleen Smith (Dry Creek Pomo/Bodega Miwok)
in American Indian Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 1&2, ed. by Devon A. Mihesuah .
"Dildos, Hummingbirds and Driving Her Crazy: Searching for American Indian Women's Love Poetry and Erotics."
Frontiers. Edited by Ines Hernandez-Avila.
"Dildos, Hummingbirds and Driving Her Crazy: Searching for American Indian Women's Love Poetry and Erotics."
in Reading Native Women: Critical/Creative Representations, edited by Ines Hernandez-Avila. Altamira Press.
"A String of Textbooks: Artifacts of Composition Pedagogy in Indian Boarding Schools."
The Journal of Teaching Writing. Vol. 16.2, Fall 2000.
"I Don't Speak the Language that has the Sentences: An Interview with Paula Gunn Allen"
in Sojourner: The Women's Forum. February 1999, Vol. 24, No. 2.
"A Strong Woman Pursuing Her God: Linda Hogan's Power"
in Sojourner: The Women's Forum. November 2000, Vol. 26, No. 3.
Fiction Posing as Truth: A Critical Review of Ann Rinaldi's My Heart is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, with Marlene Atleo, Naomi Caldwell, Barbara Landis, Jean Mendoza, LaVera Rose, Beverly Slapin, and Cynthia Smith. Also published in Re-thinking Schools: An Urban Education Journal (Summer 1999); also published in Multicultural Review (September 1999, Vol. 8, No. 3)
Review of Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays: A Tribal Voice by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn in Sojourner: The Women's Forum. January 1997, Vol. 22, No. 5.
Review of Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit
by Leslie Marmon Silko in Sojourner: The Women's Forum. November 1996, Vol. 22, No. 93.
Lunatic or Lover/Madman or Shaman: the Role of the Poet in Contemporary Culture(s) from The Raven's Chronicles
Deer & Petroglyphs in ASAIL
Swarm
The Zen of La Llorona
A Trick of Grace
Clean
Highway 126
Burning the Baskets
Migration
I Am Not a Witness
Stories I Tell My Daughter in Weber Studies
Indian Cartography in Weber Studies
Baskets in Weber Studies
Sorrow as a Woman, read by Deborah at Bumbershoot 2001 in Seattle [mp3]
Stories I Tell My Daughter, read by Deborah at Bumbershoot 2001 in Seattle [mp3]
Esselen
The Esselen were a Native American linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who resided on the Central California coast and the coastal mountains, including what is now known as the Big Sur region in Monterey County, California...
and Chumash people, native to the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez/Monterery, California area. Her mother, Madgel Eleanor (Yeoman) Miranda was of French and Jewish ancestry.
Biography
Miranda was born at UCLA hospital and raised in and around Los Angeles, California, until the age of five, when her mother moved her to Washington State. Miranda's father grew up as the last generation to live in a cohesive tribal Chumash unit (a compound in Santa Barbara). Miranda and her parents worked to re-establish tribal ties and reunite tribal members. The EsselenEsselen
The Esselen were a Native American linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who resided on the Central California coast and the coastal mountains, including what is now known as the Big Sur region in Monterey County, California...
Nation is currently petitioning the federal government for recognition.
Miranda's mother died in November 2001.
Deborah Miranda has two children, Miranda and Danny. Her partner is Margo Solod, a poet and cook from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Education
Starting academia late in life, Miranda earned her Ph.D. in English at age 40 from the University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in 2001. She taught at Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Lutheran University is located in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma, Washington. In September 2009, PLU had a student population of 3,582 and approximately 280 full-time faculty...
for three years. Miranda is currently Assistant Professor of English at Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States.The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, about north of its present location. In 1776 it was renamed Liberty Hall in a burst of...
, where she teaches Creative Writing (poetry), Native American Literatures, Women's Literature, Poetry as Literature, and composition.
Deborah Miranda has been selected for the 2007-2008 Institute of American Cultures (IAC) Visiting Scholars Award at the University of California - Los Angeles. She will research and teach at UCLA during her sabbatical.
Miranda's work has been published in the Bellingham Review, Bellowing Ark, California Quarterly, Calyx, Callaloo, Cimarron Review, News From Native California, Poets On, Raven Chronicles, Sojurner, Weber Studies Journal, West Wind Review, and Wilderness.
Awards
Miranda was selected for the 2007-2008 Institute of American Cultures (IAC) Visiting Scholars Award at the University of California - Los Angeles.The Zen of La Llorona was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award in 2005.
In 2001 Miranda received the Connie Leach Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in achieving a Doctoral Degree from the Seattle Indian Services Commission. In 2000, she was named Writer of the Year for Poetry for her book, Indian Cartography, by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers. She also received a Hedgebrook
Hedgebrook
Hedgebrook is a rural retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, Washington, founded in 1988. Hedgebrook's artist in residency program accepts 40 writers each year, who spend 2 to 6 weeks in residence working on their diverse writing projects. Each writer stays in her own hand-crafted cottage....
Writers Residency that year.
Miranda received the First Book Awards' Diane Decorah Award for Poetry in 1997 from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas is an organization of Native American writers, most notable for its literary awards, presented annually to Native American writers in three categories: First Book of Poetry, First Book of Prose, and Lifetime Achievement...
. In 1995, she was the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference Prizewinner in poetry. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 1994. In 1993, she won the 49th Parallel Poetry Prize and obtained a Tacoma Arts Commission Grant to plan and carry out a day long arts workshop for mothers.
Books
The Zen of La Llorona, Salt Publishing, 2005.Deer, a chapbook.
Indian Cartography, Greenfield Review Press, 1999, Cover Art by Kathleen Smith (Dry Creek Pomo/Bodega Miwok)
Anthologies
- Red Ink: Love and Erotica, University of Arizona American Indian Studies Program.
- A Fierce Brightness: Twenty-Five Years of Women's Poetry, Margarita Donnelly, Beverly McFarland, Micki Reaman (Editors), Calyx Books.
- The Dirt Is Red Here: Art & Poetry from Contemporary Native California, Margaret Dubin (Editor), Heyday BooksHeyday BooksHeyday Books is an independent nonprofit publisher based in Berkeley, California.Heyday was founded by Malcolm Margolin in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed The East Bay Out, a guide to the natural history of the hills and bayshore around Berkeley and Oakland...
, 2002. - This Bridge We Call Home: 20 Years After This Bridge Called My Back, Gloria Anzaldua & AnaLouise Keating (Editors), Routledge.
- Through the Eye of the Deer, Carolyn Dunn & Carol Zitzer-Comfort (Editors), Aunt Lute Books, 1999.
- Women: Images and Realities - A Multicultural Anthology, Nancy Schniedewind, Amy Kesselman & Lily D. McNair (Editors), Mayfield Pub., 1999.
- the Indian Summer issue of phati'tude
- Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry, John E. Smelcer, D. L. Birchfield (Editors), Salmon Run Pub.
Journal Articles & Book Reviews
"What's Wrong with a Little Fantasy? Storytelling from the (still) Ivory Tower"in American Indian Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 1&2, ed. by Devon A. Mihesuah .
"Dildos, Hummingbirds and Driving Her Crazy: Searching for American Indian Women's Love Poetry and Erotics."
Frontiers. Edited by Ines Hernandez-Avila.
"Dildos, Hummingbirds and Driving Her Crazy: Searching for American Indian Women's Love Poetry and Erotics."
in Reading Native Women: Critical/Creative Representations, edited by Ines Hernandez-Avila. Altamira Press.
"A String of Textbooks: Artifacts of Composition Pedagogy in Indian Boarding Schools."
The Journal of Teaching Writing. Vol. 16.2, Fall 2000.
"I Don't Speak the Language that has the Sentences: An Interview with Paula Gunn Allen"
in Sojourner: The Women's Forum. February 1999, Vol. 24, No. 2.
"A Strong Woman Pursuing Her God: Linda Hogan's Power"
in Sojourner: The Women's Forum. November 2000, Vol. 26, No. 3.
Fiction Posing as Truth: A Critical Review of Ann Rinaldi's My Heart is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, with Marlene Atleo, Naomi Caldwell, Barbara Landis, Jean Mendoza, LaVera Rose, Beverly Slapin, and Cynthia Smith. Also published in Re-thinking Schools: An Urban Education Journal (Summer 1999); also published in Multicultural Review (September 1999, Vol. 8, No. 3)
Review of Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays: A Tribal Voice by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn in Sojourner: The Women's Forum. January 1997, Vol. 22, No. 5.
Review of Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit
by Leslie Marmon Silko in Sojourner: The Women's Forum. November 1996, Vol. 22, No. 93.
Interviews and Autobiographical Essays
Bad Girls'/'Good Girls' : Women, Sex, and Power in the Nineties, Donna Perry, Nan Bauer Maglin (Editors), Rutgers University Press.Writing available online
Work to Do & Dream On, 1991 from The Raven's ChroniclesLunatic or Lover/Madman or Shaman: the Role of the Poet in Contemporary Culture(s) from The Raven's Chronicles
Deer & Petroglyphs in ASAIL
Swarm
The Zen of La Llorona
A Trick of Grace
Clean
Highway 126
Burning the Baskets
Migration
I Am Not a Witness
Stories I Tell My Daughter in Weber Studies
Indian Cartography in Weber Studies
Baskets in Weber Studies
Sorrow as a Woman, read by Deborah at Bumbershoot 2001 in Seattle [mp3]
Stories I Tell My Daughter, read by Deborah at Bumbershoot 2001 in Seattle [mp3]
External links
- Deborah's Faculty page at Washington and Lee University
- Another faculty profile at Washington and Lee University
- Miranda Named Visiting Scholar at UCLA's Institute of American Cultures
- A short biography from the Internet Public Library's Native American Authors Project
- Book Review of 'The Zen of La Llorona' by Beverly Slapin.
- 'The Zen of La Llorana' Publisher's page