Leslie Marmon Silko
Writer
1948 -

Leslie Marmon Silko was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of Pueblo, Laguna, Mexican and white descendent. Growing up on the Laguna Pueblo reservation she attended an Indian school and later attended a school in Albuquerque. After high school she went on to college at the University of New Mexico. Silko has lived and taught in New Mexico, Alaska and Arizona, where she currently resides in Tucson. She published her first work, Tony's Story in 1969. In 1977 Silko published her first novel Ceremony.

An advocate of Native American rights, she primarily focuses on the preservation of oral tradition and ceremonies of the Laguna Pueblo Indians. Silko is the "first acclaimed Native-American woman author" and has used this role to call attention to many controversial political ideas. These include the White European conquest of the Native-Americans and current immigration policies directed at minorities. Other issues that interest Silko are Women's Equality and ending violence against women.