Joy Harjo, the 23rd US Poet Laureate, is the 2020-21 Avenali Chair in the Humanities. A writer, editor, and musician, Harjo is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the first Native American to hold the position of Poet Laureate.

Harjo is the author of nine books of poetry, a memoir, a variety of plays and screenplays, and two award-winning children’s books. She is also the editor of three major anthologies of Native writing. Her many awards include the 2019 Jackson Prize from the Poetry Society of America, the Ruth Lilly Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the 2015 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she earned her BA at the University of New Mexico and her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Harjo discusses her signature project as Poet Laureate. Living Nations, Living Words: A Map of First Peoples Poetry presents the work of contemporary Native poets in a national, fully digital and interactive map featuring audio recordings by authors. Developed in collaboration with the Library of Congress’s Geography and Map Division, the project maps 47 contemporary Native American poets across the country — including Louise Erdrich, Natalie Diaz, Ray Young Bear, and Craig Santos Perez. A companion anthology, edited and with an introduction by Harjo, is forthcoming from Norton in May 2021.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden recently announced the appointment of Harjo to a third term, to begin in September 2021, making her only the second laureate to receive this extension since terms for the position were established in 1943.