The UNM Creative Writing Program hosted UNM alumnus, and National Poetry Series Award winning poet Jake Skeets for a reading of his poetry and a poetry master class.
Jake Skeets (he/him) is Tsi’naajínii born for Tábąąhá; his maternal grandparents are the Táchii’nii and his paternal grandparents are the Tódík’ózhí. Skeets is Diné from Vanderwagen, New Mexico. He is the author of Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, winner of the National Poetry Series, American Book Award, Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and Whiting Award. He holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. His honors include a 2020-2021 Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellowship and the 2023-2024 Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. He is an Assistant Professor and teaches at the University of Oklahoma.
To promote interest in Skeets’ work, all of our creative writing sections this semester read Skeet’s work, in particular, his lyric essay “Poetry as Field” and his poem “America”, which can be found on World Literature Today at https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2019/autumn/poetry-field-jake-skeets
