Background
Paula Gunn Allen was born on October 24, 1939 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States.
(This extraordinary collection of goddess stories from Nat...)
This extraordinary collection of goddess stories from Native American civilizations across the continent, Paula Gunn Allen shares myths that have guided female shamans toward an understanding of the sacred for centuries.
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activist critic novelist professor poet
Paula Gunn Allen was born on October 24, 1939 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States.
Paula Gunn Allen attended mission schools in Cubero and San Fidel, but she did most of her schooling at a Sisters of Charity boarding school in Albuquerque, from which she graduated in 1957.
Allen received both her bachelor's degree in English (1966) and her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing (1968) from the University of Oregon after beginning her studies at Colorado Women's College.
She received her doctorate in American studies with an emphasis on Native American literature (1975) from the University of New Mexico.
While completing her doctorate, Paula Gunn Allen published her first book of poetry, The Blind Lion (1974). Married and divorced twice more, Allen began to identify herself as a lesbian.
Slowly reclaiming a part of her own heritage, Allen helped establish a Native American literary presence in the United States with several anthologies, including Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales & Contemporary Writing by Native American Women (1989), Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, 1900–1970 (1994), and Song of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, 1974–1994 (1996). She also focused on the experiences of Native American women in her own writing. Her first novel, The Woman Who Owned the Shadows (1983), weaves traditional tribal songs, rituals, and legends into the story of a woman of mixed heritage whose struggle for survival is aided by Spider Grandmother, a figure from ancient tribal mythology. In The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986), she argued that feminist and Native American perspectives on life are compatible, claiming that traditional tribal lifestyles were never patriarchal and were generally based on “spirit-centered, woman-focused worldviews. ”
Allen edited several general works on Native American writing, including the pioneering Studies in American Indian Literature (1983) and Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman’s Source Book (1991). Her other books of poetry include Coyote’s Daylight Trip (1978), Shadow Country (1982), Skins and Bones (1988), and Life Is a Fatal Disease: Collected Poems 1962–1995 (1997). In addition to writing, Allen taught courses in Native American studies and English.
(This extraordinary collection of goddess stories from Nat...)
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(Fiction. LGBT Studies. Native American Studies. "An absor...)
Married and divorced twice more, Allen began to identify herself as a lesbian.