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Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

アリソン・アデール・ヘッジ・コーク

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1958-08-04 （Amarillo, Texas, United States）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English

Career

Occupations
poet, writer, editor, artist, performer, filmmaker, educator, professional organizer
Active Years
1980-
Affiliations
University of Nebraska at Kearney (Associate Professor / Endowed Chair in English), University of California, Riverside (Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing), Vermont College of Fine Arts (founding/teaching faculty, low-residency MFA), Naropa University (summer writing program faculty), University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Center for Great Plains Studies Fellow), Red Earth MFA (Oklahoma City University) faculty
Memberships
Black Earth Institute (fellow), MacDowell Colony (fellow), Lannan Foundation (residency fellow), Soul Mountain Retreat (fellow)
Influenced By
Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes
Nominations
Pushcart Prize (2009 — nominations for works published in 2008)

Education

North Carolina State University (community education/classes)
photography, traditional arts, writing (community classes)
Country: United States
Completed GED, later took community education classes
Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)
Creative Writing
Degree: AFAW
Country: United States
IAIA summer exchange fellow at Jack Kerouac School summer writing program
Vermont College (MFA)
Poetry
Degree: MFA in Poetry
Country: United States
Earned an MFA in poetry

Awards

American Book Award
1998
Work: Dog Road Woman
Organization: Before Columbus Foundation
Result: winner
King/Chavez/Parks Teaching Award
2005
Organization: Northern Michigan University
Result: winner
Witter Bynner Fellowship
2016
Organization: Library of Congress / Poetry and Literature Center
Result: appointed
IPPY Award (Independent Publisher Book Awards) - Bronze
2015
Organization: Independent Publisher Book Awards
Result: winner
Pushcart Prize (nominations)
2009
Organization: Pushcart Press
Result: nominated

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Dog Road Woman

poetry

Debut poetry collection addressing culture, rights, labor, environment and other themes; won the American Book Award.

cultureprejudicelaborenvironment

Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer

2004 memoir / creative nonfiction

A memoir recounting family history, survival and cultural background, including reflections on ancestry.

familyidentityancestry

Blood Run

poetry / free-verse verse-play

A collection of 66 poems inspired by the Native American Mound Builders and their earthworks, giving voice to humans, animals, plants and structures with ecological and political hope.

reviving historynature and spiritualitypreservation

Streaming

poetry / musical collaboration

A poetry collection linked to a musical collaboration (Rd Klā). Includes poems such as 'America I sing you back' addressing nation, resources and environment.

nation and belongingresource politicsenvironmental protection
Adaptations
  • [music album] Streaming (with Rd Klā)

Look at This Blue

2022 poetry

A poetry collection exploring environment, history, and personal/collective memory through the motif of blue; longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry.

memorynaturecolor (blue)

Off-Season City Pipe

poetry

A poetry collection using urban and seasonal motifs to depict public spaces and personal experience.

urban lifeseasonalitypersonal experience

Burn

2017 poetry (illustrated)

An illustrated poetry collection touching on personal and social themes.

lossregeneration

Bibliography

  • Burn (MadHat Press, 2017)
  • Effigies III (editor, Salt Publishing, 2019)
  • Streaming (Coffee House Press)
  • Effigies II (editor, Salt Publishing, 2014)
  • Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer (University of Nebraska Press, memoir)
  • Sing: Poetry of the Indigenous Americas (editor, University of Arizona Press, 2011)
  • Blood Run (Salt Publishing)
  • Off-Season City Pipe (Coffee House Press)
  • From the Fields (editor, California Poets in the Schools Press)
  • Dog Road Woman (Coffee House Press, debut collection)
  • Year of the Rat (chapbook, Grimes Press)
  • Other edited volumes and co-edited works (Effigies series, etc.)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
experimental and musical free-verse formsethno-ecological perspective in narrationconversational voice with strong narrative elements
Recurring Motifs
land and ancestral memoryvoices of animals and plantslabor and movement (migration / seasonal work)color imagery (notably blue)

Legacy

Recognized for integrating cultural and political themes into poetry—making visible issues concerning Native American identity, environment, and labor—and for her influence as an educator in low-residency MFAs and university programs. Her self-identification of Indigenous ancestry has also been the subject of external scrutiny and debate.

Academic Societies

  • Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers (associated)
  • Association for the Sociology of Religion (lectures/engagements)

Quotes

  • America I sing you back
    Source: Poetry collection and PBS (feature including the poem 'America I sing you back') (2016)

Trivia

  • Dropped out of high school to work in the fields, earned a GED at 16, then took community education classes.
  • Self-identifies as Native American, though some external investigations have reported no documented Indigenous ancestry in published genealogies.
  • Has directed the annual Literary Sandhill Crane Retreat (linked with migration-pattern studies) since 2007.