Honors and Awards

Pushcart Nomination for “Truce,” Yellow Medicine Review, 2020.

Pushcart Nomination for “A Water Poem for Remembering, Split This Rock Poem of the Week, 2020.

Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award for Copper Yearning, Council of Wisconsin Writers, 2020.

Zona Gale Short Fiction Award for “Vision Confidence Score,” Council of Wisconsin Writers, 2020.

Wisconsin Academy Fellows Award, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 2020.

Recognition as among “Wisconsin’s 38 Influential Native Americans,” Madison 365. March 2020. 

Best Native Book List for Copper Yearning, The Tribal College Journal, 2019.

Honorable Mention, “Mystique of Small,” Peninsula Pulse, Hal Prize 2019, Vol. 25, Issue 31, 2019. 15.

Honorable Mention, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts in the Rick Demarinis 2018 Short Story Contest for “Vision Confidence Score.”

Distinguished Public Service Award, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, 2018.

Pushcart Nomination for “Rattle,” Vassar Review, 2016.

Fellowship, Center for 21st Century Studies, 2015-2016 Academic Year.

Wisconsin Poet Laureate for 2015-16.

Pushcart Nomination for “Of Fractals and Pink Flowering,” Cowfeather Press, 2015.

Wisconsin Arts Board Grant, Woodland Indian Arts Initiative, 2015.

Pushcart Nomination for “Talking Rock.” 2014.

Pushcart Nomination for “Reliquary.” 2012.

Drama of the Year Award, for The Museum at Red Earth, from Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, 2012.

Outstanding Woman of Color Award, UW-Milwaukee & UW System, 2012.

Pushcart Nomination for “Dreams of Water Bodies.” 2011.

Grant, Arts and Humanities Travel Award, Graduate School, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, 2004.

Fellowship, Cultures and Communities, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, 2002-2003.

Writing Award, “Writer of the Year, Personal Essay,” from Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, 2002, for “The Voices We Carry,” in After Confession: Poetry as Autobiography, Kate Sontag and David Graham, (eds.), Gray Wolf Press.

Nomination, Distinquished Alumnae Award, College of St. Benedict, 2002.

Service Award, “Wordcrafter of the Year,” from Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, 2002.

Research Grant, “Native Poetics in the Canon of the Americas,” Institute on Race and Ethnicity, University of Wisconsin, 2001-2002 Academic Year.

Grants, from Indian Community School Foundation, Cultures and Communities, and Wisconsin Humanities Council for the Conference “Writing in Native Communities, Native Writing Communities,” 2001-2002.

Artist Fellowship, Award in Poetry, Wisconsin Arts Board, 2001.

Lecture Award, Writer of the Year Award in the Category of Lectures, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, 1999.

Poem Installation: “Living History” selected for installation in the Midwest Express Building in Milwaukee, 1998.

Inaugural Lecturer, chosen for Western Canada Lecture Series in 1995.

Fellowship, Center for Twentieth Center Studies, College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1993-94 Academic Year.

Scholarship, George Miller American Indian Scholarship, Squaw Valley Community of Writers Fiction Program, 1994.

Book Award for Trailing You, Diane Decorah First Book Award in Poetry, Returning the Gift, Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, 1993.

Lecture Selection, Talk Selected by Writers’ Conferences and Festivals for anthology of Best Lectures, 1992.

Research Award, University of Wisconsin Institute on Race and Ethnicity, Spring 1992.

Grant, Zahm Research Travel Fund, University of Notre Dame, 1987.

Fellowship, Frances C. Allen Fellow, The Newberry Library, D’Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, 1/85-6/85.