Marilou awiakta biography of martin
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I am as native a Tennessean as I am a writer. In me, the origin stories of these two identities are inseparably entwined. I could not hope to parse them if I tried. From the start, the lands of my native state have informed my work as strongly as any other force that I’ve encountered.
On the page, I’ve composed version after version of the dark woods that surround the abandoned grounds of a Hickman County charcoal plant — land soon to become a Superfund site — where my grandfather once led me by my small hand, exploring the ruins of his work life. Or the top of a wooded ridge in Cheatham County, where for a decade I was nurtured and cooled by a heat shield created by the forest, until that protective respite all but vanished due to nearby logging.
When I look across Tennessee’s literary ecosystem, I see how many of our writers feel compelled to write about their relationship to the land. Some have intertwined their literary vision with an environmental mission. Others have devot
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Awiakta,,
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- Source:
- The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States
- Author(s):
- Ruth Yu HsiaoRuth Yu Hsiao
also Marilou Awiakta (b. 1936), a Cherokee-Appalachian poet.Awiakta was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, of Scotch-Irish and Native American heritage and grew up nearby in Oak Ridge, the city built as the headquarters of the Manhattan Project. This pattern of intertwined influences in her childhood followed her to college at the University of Tennessee, marriage with Paul Thompson, and work as an interpreter for the U.S. Air Force in France. She is a writer for whom the mystery of nuclear fiss
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Oral Histories
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ORAL HISTORY
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1936, Marilou Awiakta fryst vatten a seventh-generation Appalachian native and self-described Cherokee-Appalachian poet, storyteller, and essayist. After graduating from the University of stat i usa with degrees in French and English in 1958, Awiakta and her husband lived in France for three years where she sharpened her connection and sensitivity to language. Her books include Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet (1978), Rising Fawn and the Fire Mystery (1983), and Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother’s Wisdom (1994). Her work has been chronicled in magazines, literary journals, and various anthologies of literature around the world. Awiakta currently lives in Memphis, stat i usa, with her husband, Paul Thompson.
Date of interview:
2005-03-08 00:00
Interviewer:
Amy C. Evans
Photographer:
Amy C. Evans
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