OU announced Joy Harjo, the 23rd poet laureate of the United States, will be awarded Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication's 2024 Lumine Lifetime Achievement Award in a press release Wednesday.
The Lumine Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony is an annual event for exceptional women professionals who have made significant and sustained contributions to the media industry.
Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and was the first Native American poet laureate of the U.S.
Appointed to a one-year term, the U.S. poet laureate presents a reading and lecture at the Library of Congress and often engages in a community-oriented poetry project with national reach.
With a career of more than five decades, Harjo has published 10 poetry books, including the critically acclaimed “An American Sunrise” and “Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years.”
Harjo’s work explores and articulates the complexities of Indigenous heritage, identity and spirit, according to the press release.
Aside from poetry, Harjo has also written memoirs, children’s literature, anthologies and music that celebrate and preserve the richness of Indigenous poetry.
Harjo’s work with children’s literature has been equally impactful, writing stories for young readers about Native cultures, according to the press release.
Her award-winning children’s books “The Good Luck Cat” and “For a Girl Becoming” introduce important cultural narratives to young generations and create a deeper understanding and appreciation for the diversity and depth of Native experiences.
According to the press release, Harjo has also made notable contributions as a playwright. Her play “Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light,” which she toured as a one-woman show, chronicles the challenges a young woman faces on her path to healing and self-determination.
Harjo has received many awards and honors, including Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement.
The Lumine Lifetime Achievement Award will be given during Gaylord College’s Creative Media Marketplace event at 6 p.m. on Thursday in the Gaylord Hall Auditorium.
This story was edited by Peggy Dodd, Ismael Lele and Anusha Fathepure. Natalie Armour and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
