Luci Tapahonso (MA, 1983, University of New Mexico) is Diné and a Professor of American Indian Studies and English. She is the author of three children's books and five books of poetry. She teaches courses in American Indian Literature and Creative Writing.

Professor Tapahonso received the 2002 American Indian Leadership Award from the University of Kansas for her integral role in establishing the Indigenous Nations Studies Graduate Program there in 1998. Her book, Blue Horses Rush In, was awarded the Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association's 1998 Award for Poetry. She was also awarded the "1999 Storyteller of the Year" by The Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers. In 1998, she was awarded the Kansas Governor's Art Award, and Distinguished Woman awards from the National Association of Women in Education and the Girl Scout Council of America. Tapahonso was very honored to serve twice as Grand Marshal of the Northern Navajo Fair (Shiprock, New Mexico) in 1991 and 1999. Shiprock is her home community.

Professor Tapahonso's work has appeared in many print and media productions in the U.S. and internationally. Her poems have been translated into German, Italian and French. She was featured in Rhino Records' CD "In Their Own Voices: A Century of American Poetry" and in the films: "The Desert is No Lady," "Art of the Wild," and "Woven by the Grandmothers: An Exhibition of 19th Century Navajo Textiles," which were all released on PBS stations. Her work was featured in Norton Anthology's "American Passages,"(2002) which is a PBS video series focusing on contemporary American writers.

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