Linda Hogan


Linda K. Hogan is a poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories.
She is currently the Chickasaw Nation's Writer in Residence. Hogan is a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.
She lives in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.

Early life

Linda Hogan is American, born July 16, 1947 in Denver, Colorado. Her father, Charles C. Henderson, is a Chickasaw from a recognized historical family. Her mother, Cleona Florine Henderson was of white descent. Linda's uncle, Wesley Henderson, helped form the White Buffalo Council in Denver during the 1950s, to help other Indian people coming to the city because of The Relocation Act, which forcibly removed Indigenous peoples for work and other opportunities. He had a strong influence on her and she grew up relating strongly to both her Chickasaw family in Indian Territory and to a mixed Indian community in the Denver area. At other times, her family traveled because of her father's career in the U.S. military. Her family lived in Germany for three years. She descended from a family of storytellers who helped shape her writing Along with being an author, Hogan is also an environmentalist who spent eight years volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation center. Two out of those eight years were spent at veterinarian school and the other six were spent at Birds of Prey Rehabilitation Center in Colorado. The work was very physical so Hogan reached a point where she was no longer able to handle it. Now, she does good for animals by talking and writing about them Hogan married Pat Hogan and had children, Sandra Dawn Protector and Tanya Thunder Horse

Career

Hogan earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1978 at the Colorado Springs campus. She then briefly moved to Maryland with her husband and later moved back to Colorado where she went to school in Boulder. Her first university teaching position was at Colorado College in 1980–1984, the next was in American Indian Studies and American Studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Hogan started writing in her late twenties after working with orthopedically handicapped children. During her lunch hours, she would read Kenneth Rexroth's work, which gave her the confidence to start writing publicly. She kept a journal that she wrote in religiously. As she began to write essays and fiction, she realized that the energy she put into writing in a journal, had a new outlet. As she journaled, she also discovered that she was writing about the beauty of nature every morning and she believed she could do more for nature in less private writing settings After writing her first book, Calling Myself Home, she continued to write poetry. Her work has both a historical and political focus, but is lyrical. Hogan's lyrical work is considered to have a voice of literary activism and in it is Native spirituality and indigenous knowledge systems of all genres She considers her work politically centered because it is about a world view that cannot be separated from the political. Her most recent books are The Book of Medicines and Rounding the Human Corners. and a book of new and selected poetry containing work from the 1970s until 2014. Published in 2015.Hogan also has worked with Brenda Peterson in writing, Sightings, the Mysterious Journey of the Gray Whale for National Geographic books. She also wrote the script for the PBS documentary, Everything Has a Spirit, regarding Native American religious freedom.
She is also a novelist and essayist. Her work centers on the world of native peoples, the environment, and from her own indigenous perspective. She is currently known by students of ecological literature and eco-poetics. She was a full professor of Creative Writing at the University of Colorado and then taught for two years in the University's Ethnic Studies Department. Her most recent teaching has been as Writer in Residence for The Chickasaw Nation for six years, and a faculty position at the Indian Arts Institute in Santa Fe.
Hogan has published works in many different backgrounds and forms. Her concentration is on environmental themes as well Southeastern tribal histories and indigenous spirits and culture. She has acted as a consultant in bringing together Native tribal representatives and feminist themes, particularly allying them to her native ancestry. She strives to balance the perception of male and female power in Native American culture that was disrupted by the effects of the early Christian Americans. Her work, whether fiction or non-fiction, expresses an indigenous understanding of the world. She has written essays and poems on a variety of subjects, both fictional and nonfictional, biographical and from research. Hogan has also written historical novels. Her work studies the historical wrongs done to Native Americans and the American environment since the European colonization of North America.
Hogan was a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oklahoma. Hogan is the second minority woman to become a full professor at the University of Colorado. She is the Writer-in-Residence for the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma.
In October 2011, she instructed a writing workshop through the Abiquiu Workshops in Abiquiú, New Mexico. She currently teaches one class a year in the graduate writing program at the University of Colorado as she keeps up with her schedule from her other work. Supporting solely herself and her home, Hogan keeps very busy but rarely works full-time because otherwise, she would not be able to write.
She has now returned to her Chickasaw homeland in Oklahoma, where she lives in Tishomingo. with her family. Hogan feels as though she owes the future to her children and grandchildren. She says that her home is a place for her grandchildren particularly because they are given the opportunity to explore nature. Along with this, she believes that tradition and language are extremely important, especially in Native American culture, which is why her family is so important to her. Her work is completely dedicated to her children.

Awards and recognition