Silko, Leslie Marmon (Vol. 23) - Introduction

Leslie Marmon Silko 1948–

American Indian novelist, poet, and short story writer.

Silko draws from the oral traditions and folklore of her Pueblo heritage to enrich her fiction and poetry and to convey Native American values and experience.

The portrait of the embittered, downtrodden American Indian, painted in much of the literature about Indian culture, is absent from Silko's writing. Although she recounts the abuse of Native Americans by white society, her work maintains an optimistic tone. Pride and awareness of their past provide her characters with confidence and strength.

Ceremony, her first novel and also the first novel published by a Native American woman, relates the circumstances leading to the breakdown of an Indian World War II veteran and traces his subsequent healing through ancient tribal rituals.