Fredonia, N.Y. — November 7, 2008 — Native American poet Allison Hedge Coke will be performing a reading of her works at SUNY Fredonia on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in 101 Jewett Hall as part of the university’s recognition of National American Indian Heritage month. The event is free and open to the public.
The reading is sponsored by the department of English and the Mary Louise White fund, an unrestricted endowment designed for English department programming.
Hedge Coke, of Huron/Tsalagi heritage, will be reading from her published volumes of poetry, “Dog Road Woman,” an autobiographical sketch of a contemporary mixed-blood native life in which she recounts surviving domestic violence, racism, addiction and other extraordinary challenges. It received an American Book Award in 1998.
“Allison Hedge Coke is a tireless promoter of Indigenous rights around the world,” says James Thomas Stevens, associate professor of English at SUNY Fredonia. “She has been a guest professor and lecturer at many eastern universities, most recently Hartwick College in Oneonta. I am pleased to welcome her to SUNY Fredonia.”
Hedge Coke is an associate professor of poetry & creative writing in the English department of the University of Nebraska, Kearney. She created an online mentorship project in literary arts that matches incarcerated youths in Sioux Falls, S.D., with professional Native American poets and writers. She was named “Mentor of the Year” by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers in 2001 for her work, and “Writer of the Year” for her book, “Blood Run,” in 2007.
Hedge Coke has received several awards for her poetry, including an additional Wordcraft Writer of the Year Award in 2005 for “Off-Season City Pipe,” which lyrically articulates the stark contrast between an ancestry whose strong work ethic, manual skills, and environmental stewardship defined their communities, but whose present circumstances have forced so many into poverty, performing work that fails to provide sustenance for the land or its people. She has also received the Naropa Poetry Prize, the New Mexico Press Women’s Creative Writing Award, and several South Dakota Arts Council Fellowships. She is also the endowed Reynolds Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska, Kearney.
To learn more about Allison Hedge Coke and to view samples of her photography, visit her blog, “Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Off-Season,”.
