{"id":77127,"date":"2026-02-25T13:48:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=77127"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:17:28","slug":"joy-harjo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/joy-harjo\/","title":{"rendered":"US poet laureate Joy Harjo to visit NAU for poetry reading\u202f"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Arizona University Honors College\u202fwill host\u202fJoy Harjo, the 23rd United States poet laureate, for a poetry reading and book signing on Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. in Prochnow Auditorium. The ticketed event, part of the\u202fNackard\u202fFamily Honors Distinguished Speaker Series,\u202fis free and open to the public.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u202finternationally renowned writer and performer\u202ffrom\u202fthe Muscogee Nation\u202fwill read selections of her poetry and sign her books for audience members after the performance.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

Harjo was the first Native American to ever be\u202fnamed\u202fU.S. poet laureate, serving three terms from 2019 to 2022.\u202fHarjo\u2019s work has made a profound impact on the national literary landscape, blending poetry,\u202fmusic\u202fand storytelling to explore themes such as identity,\u202fhistory\u202fand resilience.\u202fShe has authored 11 books of poetry, including her breakout book \u201cShe Had Some Horses,\u201d released in 1983, and the highly acclaimed \u201cSundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years.\u201d In addition to poetry, Harjo has written\u202ftwo\u202fmemoirs\u202fand\u202fa number of\u202fplays, children\u2019s\u202fbooks and nonfiction\u202fworks.\u202fHarjo is also\u202fa\u202fmusician\u202fand\u202fhas produced seven award-winning albums.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among other honors, Harjo has been awarded a National Humanities Medal, the Poetry Society of America\u2019s Frost Medal, the Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan\u202fSandrof\u202fLifetime Achievement\u202fAward\u202fand a Guggenheim Fellowship.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Honors College Dean Kevin Gustafson said Harjo was a natural choice for\u202fNAU,\u202fwhere scholarship on Native American culture,\u202fheritage\u202fand history abounds.\u202fThe university is home to\u202fmore than 2,000 Native American students representing some 90 tribes throughout the U.S., a Department of Applied Indigenous Studies, a Center for Native American and Indigenous Futures, an Office of Native American and Indigenous Advancement and a plethora of Indigenous faculty and staff who support teaching and learning across NAU\u2019s 20+ locations throughout Arizona.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“The NAU Honors College is grateful to our sponsors\u202fand\u202fnumerous campus partners for making this event possible,\u201d Gustafson said.\u202f\u201cThe\u202fNackard\u202fFamily Honors Distinguished Speaker Series is dedicated to bringing important voices to the NAU campus and greater Flagstaff community, and few voices are as important\u2014or distinctive\u2014as that of poet laureate Joy Harjo.”\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Harjo will perform on Wednesday, March 18, at 7 p.m. in Prochnow Auditorium on the NAU campus.\u202fA book signing will follow the performance.\u202fThe event is free and open to the public, but tickets are\u202frequired\u202fand can be reserved\u202f<\/span>on the NAU website<\/span><\/a>.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>
\n\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Northern Arizona University Honors College\u202fwill host\u202fJoy Harjo, the 23rd United States poet laureate, for a poetry reading and book signing on Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. in Prochnow Auditorium. The ticketed event, part of the\u202fNackard\u202fFamily Honors Distinguished Speaker Series,\u202fis free and open to the public.\u202f The\u202finternationally renowned writer and performer\u202ffrom\u202fthe Muscogee Nation\u202fwill read…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":77128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happenings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}