Joy Harjo

A member of the Muscogee Tribe, Joy Harjo is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently How We Became Human: New and Selected poems. “I turn and return to Harjo’s poetry for her breathtaking complex witness and for her world-remaking language: precise, unsentimental, miraculous,” notes Adrienne Rich. Harjo began playing the saxophone in an attempt to combine elements of tribal music, jazz, and rock with poetry. She is Winner of the American Book Award and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writer’s Circle of the Americas.

Visit her Poetry Foundation page for more information.

Click here to listen to Joy Harjo perform Emily Dickinson’s “I am Nobody! Who are You?” at the Folger on December 11, 2000.

Click here to listen to Joy Harjo introduce and read her poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here” at the Folger on December 11, 2000.

Please consult this article to learn more about the Emily Dickinson Birthday Tribute.