Writers On the Fly: Simon Ortiz

Simon J. Ortiz (born on May 27, 1941 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is a Native American writer of the Acoma Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what has been called the Native American Renaissance. He is one of the most respected and widely read Native American poets.

Since 1968, Ortiz has taught creative writing and Native American literature at various institutions, including San Diego State, the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, Navajo Community College, the College of Marin, the University of New Mexico, Sinte Gleska University (one of the first U.S. tribal colleges) , and the University of Toronto. He currently teaches at Arizona State University.

Ortiz is a recipient of the New Mexico Humanities Council Humanitarian Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Discovery Award, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writer's Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and was an Honored Poet recognized at the 1981 White House Salute to Poetry. That year, "From Sand Creek: Rising In This Heart Which Is Our America", received the Pushcart Prize in poetry. Ortiz also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Returning the Gift Festival of Native Writers (the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers) and from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (1993).

Faculty profile:
https://webapp4.asu.edu/directory/per...