Emergence & Becoming—Framing Native Poetics Beyond the “Renaissance": A Lecture By Jake Skeets

The term “Native American Renaissance” has long been used to describe the surge of Native literary production in the 1960s and ’70s. However, this label risks implying that Native literature lacked sophistication or vitality prior to this moment. Drawing from Diné poetics and cultural frameworks, this lecture—part of the #AWP25 Tribal Colleges & Universities Fellowship Program—will examine how these ideas illuminate the continuity and innovation of Native storytelling traditions, offering a more expansive understanding of Native literature’s past, present, and future.

Jake Skeets (he/him) is the author of Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, winner of the National Poetry Series, American Book Award, Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and Whiting Award. His work has appeared widely in journals and magazines such as Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, and The Paris Review. Other honors include an NEA Grant for Arts Projects, a Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellowship, and the 2023–2024 Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. He is from the Navajo Nation and teaches at the University of Oklahoma.
Photo credit: Deanna Dent