Spirits are continually present and the individual aware of the power present in the world and prepared to 'walk in balance' can move down a path toward spiritual exploration and knowledge.Īllen has written numerous books of poetry, many of which explore the issue of the relationship between the individual and a 'mythic space' or the spiritual realm. Nature is welcomed and accepted in all forms. She encourages her reader to see the multiplicity present in all things. Three components central to Native American culture are the individual, the land, and the spiritual world the way in which they are woven together forms the fabric of life for the community and the basis for Allen's work. Subsequently, Allen has been a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. Native American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

Between 19 she was professor of Ethnic Studies and

She was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA in 1981-82. in American Studies and Native American Studies from the University of New Mexico. Allen returned to New Mexico and in 1975 received a Ph.D. in Creative Writing, also from the University of Oregon. She returned to school and in 1968 received an M.F.A. After college, she married, had two children, and subsequently divorced. in English from the University of Oregon (1966). Her sister is poet Carol Lee Sanchez and her cousin is writer Leslie Marmon Silko, both of whom were reared in her community.Īfter attending mission schools in rural Cubero, San Fidel, and a convent school in Albuquerque, Allen went on to receive her B.A. The writings of her mother's uncle, John Gunn, an anthropologist and researcher of Native American cultures, was a major source of information for Allen's writings. Allen's mother is of Laguna Pueblo and Sioux heritage and her father was Lebanese-American.

Born Paula Marie Francis, 24 October 1939, Albuquerque, New MexicoĪ Native American of Laguna Pueblo and Sioux heritage, Paula Gunn Allen was raised in Cubero, New Mexico, a Spanish land-grant town 50 miles west of Albuquerque, abutting the Laguna Reservation.

Off the Reservation by Paula Gunn Allen