Paula Gunn Allen
(1939 - living) U.S.A.
Native American writer and scholar
Born in Cubero, new Mexico, Allen grew up near the Laguna Pueblo reservation. She is of Laguna Pueblo, Sioux, Scottish and Lebanese descent and is a prominent scholar of Native American literature. She edited anthologies featuring her own lively introductions to the work of other Native American writers as well as her feminist perspective on Native American traditions.
Allen was married and had three children before she came out as a lesbian during the 1970s, the same period when she began to publish poetry. She acknowledges Jusy Grahn, her former partner, as an influence on her work.
Allen har received various awards and grants. She received her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico and has taught at several universities, including the University of California, Los Angeles, where until recent she was a proessor of Literature.
Books:
- The Blind Lion (1974)
- Shadow Country (1982)
- Studies in American Indian Literature: Critical Essays and Course Designs (1983)
- The Woman Who Owned the Shadows (1983)
- The Sacred Hoop: Recovering Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986)
- Skin and Bones: Poems 1979-1987
- Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women (1989)
- Grand-mothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Sourcebook (1991)
- Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, 1900-1970 (1994)
- Song of the Turtle: American Indian Fiction, 1974-1994 (1995)
- Life Is a Fatal Disease: Selected Poems, 1964-1994
Source: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, Routledge, London, 2001
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