Award-winning poet and author whose literary works include Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer; Blood Run; and Dog Road Woman. She taught at Hartwick College as a National Endowment for the Humanities Writer-in-Residence.
She spent most of her young adult life in North Carolina.
She spoke at the 2006 United Nations Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Forum in New York City.
She suffered greatly during her childhood as a result of domestic abuse and her mother's schizophrenia.
She spent a good deal of time in North Carolina, as did Appalachian-themed Writer Sharyn McCrumb.
