JOY HARJO

Joy Harjo, the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate, is a poet, musician, and proud member of the Muscogee Nation. Born Joy Foster in Tulsa, she later adopted the name “Harjo” to honor her grandmother’s Muscogee roots. A year before Harjo graduated from the University of New Mexico, she published her first poetry collection, The Last Song, in 1975. After earning her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1978, Harjo released ten more poetry books including An American Sunrise which explores her tribal history. She has also published three award-winning children’s books and several screenplays. In 2019, she became the first Native American Poet Laureate and the second to serve three consecutive terms until 2022. Her many accolades include the 2024 Frost Medal, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts, and induction into multiple halls of fame. Harjo plays saxophone and flutes with her band, the Arrow Dynamics, and has produced multiple award-winning albums. A Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and founding board member of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, she currently serves as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center.