One of the most significant Native American writers of the latter part of the twentieth century, Simon J. Ortiz is known for his insistence that the oral tradition of his Acoma Pueblo people is the guiding spirit behind all of his work. In 1993 the Returning the Gift Festival of Native Writers recognized Ortiz with a Lifetime Achievement Award for literature, and in the mid 1990s Ortiz was one of the most visible poet-storytellers on the lecture circuit in the United States. The author of more than a dozen books of poetry, short fiction, and essays, Ortiz is known for the strong sociopolitical comments on Southwestern history and American culture embedded in his stories and poems about the struggles and joys of everyday life.

Born on 27 May 1941 in Albuquerque, Simon Joseph Ortiz was raised in the small outlying Acoma Pueblo community of McCartys, New Mexico (Deetziyamah in his people's...