In an excerpt from the Oregon Encyclopedia, Janice Gould writes: Eilizabeth Woody was named Oregon Poet Laureate in 2016, the first Native American appointed to the position… her heritage of ecological and tribal values has inspired her to write poetry and prose that direct readers’attention to the relationships between place and culture. In “In Memory of Crossing the Columbia,” she writes: “My board and blanket were Navajo,/but my bed is inside the river.” Woody provides a legacy of memory, a sturdy account of how Native people are born of the land and for the land.
Drawn from the Oregon Cultural Trust: Elizabeth A. Woody is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon, of Yakama Nation descent, and is “born for” the Tódích’íinii (Bitter Water clan) of the Navajo Nation. Her paternal grandfather’s clan is Mą‘ii deeshgiizhinii (Coyote Pass – Jemez clan).She received the American Book Award in 1990, and the William Stafford Memorial Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards in 1995. Elizabeth Woody has published three books of poetry:
Luminaries of the Humble, (SunTracks, Vol 30), Univ of Arizona Press.
Seven Hands Seven Hearts, Eighth Mountain Press.
Hand into Stone : Poems, Contact II Publications.
(Elizabeth Woody has tirelessly served as advocate for both native and writing communities over the state. Please visit the Oregon Encyclopedia and the Oregon Cultural Trust for more details.)
