Allen, Paula Gunn

Born to a Lebanese American father and a Laguna Pueblo-Sioux mother in Albuquerque in 1939, Paula Gunn Allen was an American writer whose poems, scholarly work, and novels explored the intersectionality of feminism, sexuality, and Native American heritage. She earned a BA in English and an MFA in writing at the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. Paula Gunn Allen was one of the leading voices in Native American literature and the contemporary women’s spirituality movement. In addition to writing, she taught English, Creative Writing, and American Indian Studies at the University of California. She died in 2008 at the age of 68.

Books:
Blind Lion. Thorp Springs Press, 1974.
Coyote’s Daylight Trip. La Confluencia, 1978.
A Cannon Between my Knees. Strawberry Press, 1981.
Star Child. Blue Cloud Quarterly, 1981.
Studies in American Indian Literature: Critical Essays and Course Designs. Modern Language Association of America, 1983.
Shadow Country. University of California Press, 1984.
The Woman Who Owned the Shadows. Spinsters, Ink., 1984.
The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Beacon Press, 1986.
Wyrds. Taurean Horn Press, 1987.
Skins and Bones. West End Press, 1988.
Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women. Beacon Press, 1989.
Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman’s Sourcebook. Beacon Press, 1991.
Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
As Long as the Rivers Flow: The Stories of Nine Native Americans. Scholastic, 1996.
Song of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, 1974-1994. Ballantine Books, 1996.
Life is a Fatal Disease: Selected Poems, 1962-1995. West End Press, 1997.
Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-Bustin, Border-Crossing Loose Canons. Beacon Press, 1998.
Hozho – Walking in Beauty: Native American Stories of Inspiration, Humor, and Life. Lowell House, 2001.
Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat. HarperSanFrancisco, 2003.
America the Beautiful: Last Poems. West End Press, 2010.

Articles:
“Judy Grahn: Gathering of the Tribe.” Contact II 5, no. 27/28/29 (1983).
“Kochinnenako in Academe: Three Approaches to Interpreting a Keres Indian Tale.” In Feminisms, Rutgers University Press, 1991.
"Quièn Es Que Anda?" Chicago Review 39, no. 3/4 (1993): 24-26. doi:10.2307/25305710.
“Where I Come From is Like This.” Feminist Frontiers, no. 3 (1993).
“‘Border Studies: The Intersection of Gender and Color.” In The Ethnic Canon: Histories, Institutions, and Interventions, edited by David Palumbo-Liu. University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
Wong, Hertha Dawn, Lauren Muller, and Jana Sequoya Magdaleno. "Burned Alive in the Blues.” Reckonings: Contemporary Short Fiction by Native American Women Oxford University Press, 2008.

Paula Gunn Allen's Work in Anthologies, Encyclopedias, and Journals:
“Lament of my Father, Lakota.” In Voices from Wah `Kon-Tah: Contemporary Poetry of Native Americans, edited by Robert K. Dodge and Joseph B. McCullough. International Publishers, 1974.
"Two Poems." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 6, no. 3 (1981): 62-63. doi:10.2307/3346217.
“Tough Love.” In Earth Power Coming: Short Fiction in Native American Literature, edited by Simon J. Ortiz. Navajo Community College Press, 1983.
“Angry Women are Building: Issues and Struggles Facing Native American Women.” In All American Women: Lines that Divide, Ties that Bind, Free Press, 1986.
"The Warrior." Feminist Studies 14, no. 3 (1988): 428-29. doi:10.2307/3178052.
“Grandmother of the Sun.” In Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality, edited by Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ. Harper & Row, 1989.
“Deer Woman.” In Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories, edited by Craig Lesley and Katheryn Stavrakis. Laurel, 1991.
“They Make Their Climb.” In Women’s Friendships: A Collection of Short Stories, edited by Susan Koppelman. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
"Glastonbury Experience." Religion & Literature 26, no. 1 (1994): 81-87.
“Who is Your Mother?: Red Roots of White Feminism.” In From Different Shores: Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America, edited by Ronald T. Takaki. Oxford University Press, 1994.
"Essentially, It's Spring." Studies in American Indian Literatures 7, no. 4 (1995): 87.
“The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary Perspective.” In The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, edited by Teresa Shewry, Cheryll Glotfelty, and Harold Fromm. University of Georgia Press, 1996.
“Going Home, December 1992.” In Reinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native Women’s Writing of North America, edited by Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird. W.W. Norton & Co., 1997.
“Sacred Shoes; Kopis’taya (A Gathering of Spirits).” In The Serpent’s Tongue: Prose, Poetry, and Art of the New Mexico Pueblos, edited by Nancy C. Wood. Dutton Books, 1997.
“Rant for Old Teachers.” In Wise Women: Reflections of Teachers at Midlife, edited by Phyllis R. Freeman and Jan Zlotnik Schmidt. Routledge, 2000.
“Special Problems in Teaching Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony.” In Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony: A Casebook, edited by Allan Richard Chavkin. Oxford University Press, 2002.
“The Savages in the Mirror: Phantoms and Fantasies in America.” In Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: Breaking the Great Silence of the American Indian Holocaust, edited by MariJo Moore. Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006.
“Grandmother.” In The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry, edited by Rita Dove. Penguin Books, 2011.

Critical Work about Paula Gunn Allen:
Jahner, Elaine. "Climbing a Sacred Ladder: Technique in the Poetry of Paula Gunn Allen." Studies in American Indian Literatures 7, no. 3 (1983): 76-80.
Ruppert, Jim. "Paula Gunn Allen and Joy Harjo: Closing the Distance between Personal and Mythic Space." American Indian Quarterly 7, no. 1 (1983): 27-40. doi:10.2307/1183880.
Mills, Ralph J. "Paula Gunn Allen's New Poems." Studies in American Indian Literatures 10, no. 1 (1986): 63-67.
TallMountain, Mary. "Paula Gunn Allen's ‘The One Who Skins Cats’: An Inquiry into Spiritedness." Studies in American Indian Literatures 5, no. 2 (1993): 34-38.
Babb, Genie. "Paula Gunn Allen's Grandmothers: Toward a Responsive Feminist-Tribal Reading of "Two Old Women."" American Indian Quarterly 21, no. 2 (1997): 299-320. doi:10.2307/1185649.
Lupack, Barbara Tepa. American Literature 69, no. 2 (1997): 428-29. doi:10.2307/2928287
Prince-Hughes, Tara. "Contemporary Two-Spirit Identity in the Fiction of Paula Gunn Allen and Beth Brant." Studies in American Indian Literatures 10, no. 4 (1998): 9-32.
Toohey, Michelle Campbell. "Paula Gunn Allen's Grandmothers of the Light: Falling through the Void." Studies in American Indian Literatures 12, no. 3 (2000): 35-51.
Van Dyke, Annette. "A Tribute to Paula Gunn Allen (1939-2008)." Studies in American Indian Literatures, Series 2, 20, no. 4 (2008): 68-75.

Book Reviews:
Jahner, Elaine. Review of Shadow Country, by Paula Gunn Allen. American Indian Quarterly 7, no. 1 (1983): 84-86. doi:10.2307/1183883.
Ruoff, A. LaVonne Brown. Review of The Woman Who Owned Shadows: The Autobiography of Ephanie Atencio, by Paula Gunn Allen. Studies in American Indian Literatures 7, no. 3 (1983): 65-69.
Cliff, Michelle. "Review: Journey of the Spirit." Review of The Woman Who Owned the Shadows, by Paula Allen Gunn. The Women's Review of Books 1, no. 6 (1984): 8. doi:10.2307/4019411.
Schoeler, Bo. Review of The Woman Who Owned the Shadows, by Paula Gunn Allen. Studies in American Indian Literatures 9, no. 4 (1985): 143-147.
Berner, Robert L. Review of Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women, by Paula Gunn Allen. World Literature Today 64, no. 2 (1990): 344-45. doi:10.2307/40146565.
Milspaw, Yvonne J. Review of The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, by Paula Gunn Allen. The Journal of American Folklore 103, no. 408 (1990): 245-47. doi:10.2307/541875.
Hans, Birgit. Review of Paula Gunn Allen. Western Writers Series, Number 96, by Elizabeth I. Hanson. Studies in American Indian Literatures 3, no. 3 (1991): 86-88.
Van Dyke, Annette. Review of Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman’s Sourcebook, by Paula Gunn Allen. NWSA Journal 4, no. 2 (1992): 259-60.
Berner, Robert L. Review of Life is a Fatal Disease: Collected Poems 1962-1995, by Paula Gunn Allen. World Literature Today 71, no. 3 (1997): 631. doi:10.2307/40152971.

Interviews:
Cliff, Michelle, Tacie Dejanikus, and Loie Hayes. "Interview: Claiming an Identity: An Interview with Michelle Cliff." Off Our Backs 11, no. 6 (1981): 18-20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25793758.
Ballinger, Franchot, Brian Swann, and Paul Gunn Allen. "A MELUS Interview: Paula Gunn Allen." MELUS 10, no. 2 (1983): 3-25. doi:10.2307/467306.
Purdy, John, and Paula Gunn Allen. ""And Then, Twenty Years Later…": A Conversation with Paula Gunn Allen." Studies in American Indian Literatures 9, no. 3 (1997): 5-16.
Braxton, Joanne M., and Paula Gunn Allen. "Pocahontas' Voice: A Conversation with Paula Gunn Allen." The Women's Review of Books 21, no. 8 (2004): 13. doi:10.2307/4024389.

Awards:
Lifetime Achievement Award – Popular and American Culture Associations, 1900.
Native American Prize for Literature, 1990.
Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary Studies – Modern Language Association, 1999.
Lannan Foundation Fellowship, 2007.

Bibliography compiled by Zane DeZeeuw, May 2017