Name Nora Dauenhauer Role Poet | Awards American Book Awards | |
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Books Haa Tuwunaagu Yis, for Healing Our Spirit, Life Woven with Song People also search for Richard Dauenhauer, Lydia T. Black, Anooshi Lingit Aani Ka | ||
a poem for jim nagataak w my grandfather blind and nearly deaf by nora marks dauenhauer
Nora Marks Dauenhauer (May 8, 1927–September 25, 2017) was a Tlingit poet, short-story writer, and Tlingit language scholar from Alaska. She won an American Book Award for Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka, 1802 And 1804.
Contents
- a poem for jim nagataak w my grandfather blind and nearly deaf by nora marks dauenhauer
- How to pronounce nora marks dauenhauer american english us pronouncenames com
- Life
- Career
- Personal
- Awards
- Works
- References

How to pronounce nora marks dauenhauer american english us pronouncenames com
Life
Nora Marks was born May 8, 1927, the first of 16 children of Emma Marks (1913–2006) of Yakutat, Alaska, and Willie Marks (1902–1981), a Tlingit from Hoonah, Alaska. Nora's Tlingit name at birth was Keix̱wnéi. Following her mother in the Tlingit matrilineal system, she is a member of the Raven moiety of the Tlingit nation, of the Yakutat Lukaax̱.ádi (sockeye) clan, and of the Shaka Hít or Canoe Prow House, from Alsek River. Emma's maternal grandfather had been Frank Italio (1870–1956), an informant to the anthropologist Frederica de Laguna whose knowledge was incorporated into De Laguna's 1972 ethnography of the northern Tlingit, Under Mount St. Elias.
She got married at age 18 to Tony Florendo, and the couple had four children. After her youngest child went to High School, she earned her GED. She then earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, Alaska.
Career
Dauenhauer researched Tlingit language for the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks from 1972 to 1973. There she translated and transcribed works of Tlingit culture into books. Her books include Beginning Tlingit, published in 1976.
When Dauenhauer received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, she and her family moved to Juneau, Alaska, in 1983. There she became a principal researcher in language and cultural studies at the Sealaska Heritage Foundation from 1983-1997. From October 10, 2012, to October 2014 she resided as Alaska States Poet Laureate.
Personal
Dauenhauer lived in Juneau where she wrote, researched, and volunteered at local schools. She had four children, 13 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.