Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022 and is winner of the Poetry Society of America's 2024 Frost Medal, Yale's 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, and was recently honored with a National Humanities Medal.

The author of eleven books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed, Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years, several plays, children's books, and non-fiction works, and two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior, her many honors include the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Cloud Runner, Harjo's twelfth book of poetry, will be published by W.W. Norton in Fall of 2026.

As a musician and performer, Harjo has produced eight award-winning music albums. Her latest, Insomnia and Seven Steps to Grace, produced by Esperanza Spaulding, is now available through Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Joy's prose publications include a book of short essays, Girl Warrior: On Coming of Age and a series of vignettes on writing, Catching the Light . She has edited three anthologies of Native literature, including When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through — A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, Reinventing the Enemy's Language, and Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry, the companion anthology to her signature Poet Laureate project.

Harjo holds the Ruth Yellowhawk Fellowship from the Kettering Foundation, and is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She lives on the Muscogee Nation Reservation in Oklahoma.

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Gathering the Light

Illustrated by Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley

Coming September 2026 - Available for Pre-Order now!

From the U.S. Poet Laureate and author of the award winning picture book, Remember, this luminous and lyrical story reminds readers to cherish their place in the world and make a positive impact wherever they go. With rich illustrations by Anishinaabe artist Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, Gathering the Light is a poignant affirmation of the connection between all beings and the responsibility to care for one another.

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Girl Warrior

On Coming of Age

Now Available!

In her best-selling memoir Poet Warrior, Harjo led readers through her lifelong process of artistic evolution. In Girl Warrior, she speaks directly to Native girls and women, sharing stories about her own coming of age to bring renewed attention to the pivotal moments of becoming including forgiveness, failure, falling, rising up, and honoring our vast family of beings.

Praise for Girl Warrior

"Joy Harjo combines the wisdom that was here long before Europeans showed up with the challenges of a woman’s life in the present. The result is inspired by the past and a personal preparation for the future."

—Gloria Steinem, feminist activist and author

"What a beautiful and brilliant call to arms. I wish I had Joy Harjo’s words when I was young. This book is a lovely ode to her own bravery and by extension, all of ours. Girl Warrior gives possibility to young people (and all people) through Joy Harjo’s own coming-of-age narrative. More than about having waded through tumultuous waters and survived to not only tell the story but thrive inside the people we become on the other side. This book is simply a balm."

—Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award winner

“Harjo’s compelling and affirming firsthand accounts describe navigating tricky family dynamics, turning toward compassion, and dealing with unimaginable loss. When she steps back to consider the enduring impact of ‘Historical Trauma,’ such as the devastating legacies of Indian schools, forced relocation, and continued discrimination, it’s clear that Harjo’s admissions, advice, and admonitions are not only necessary reading for Native girls and women but for every American.”

—Booklist, August 1

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