Laura Tohe

{{Infobox Author

| name = Laura Tohe

| image = Laura Tohe.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1952}}

| education = University of New Mexico, University of Nebraska (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.{{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}} She is poet laureate of the Navajo Nation for 2015–2019,{{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|first=Kaila|last=White|date=December 23, 2015}}

and is a professor emerita of English at Arizona State University.{{citation|url=https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/62550|title=Laura Tohe|publisher=Arizona State University|accessdate=2018-07-05}}

Tohe was born in Fort Defiance, Arizona, the daughter of a Navajo code talker.

She grew up speaking both Diné bizaad/Navajo language and English and was punished in school for speaking her native language due to assimilation.{{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}} She earned a B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1975, an M.A. from the University of Nebraska in 1985, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska in 1993. She has been affiliated with Arizona State University since 1994.{{citation|url=https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/62550/cv|title=Curriculum vitae|accessdate=2018-07-05}}

Selected works

=Books=

Making Friends with Water (Nosila Press, 1986)
No Parole Today (West End Press, 1999){{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}}

Tséyi' / Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chelly (with photographer Stephen E. Strom, University of Arizona Press, 2005){{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}}
Code Talker Stories (Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2012){{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}}

= Librettos =

Slayer, A Navajo Oratorio (With M. Grey, Naxos Digital Services US Inc. 2009){{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}}

Awards

"Tseyi, Deep in the Rock" won the Glyph Award for Best Poetry (2007){{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}}
Navajo Nation Poet Laureate (2017) {{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}}