Ray Young Bear Virtual Lecture and Poetry Reading
Thursday, February 3, 2022 | 7:00 pm
In association with the spring 2022 exhibition Walking in Beauty, the Zuckerman Museum of Art presents a virtual lecture and reading with
Ray Young Bear on Contemporary and Traditional Tribal Literature in Relation to Linguistic Atrophy:
After 50 years.
Born in 1950, Ray Young Bear was raised on the Meskwaki (Red Earth People) Settlement in central Iowa. He graduated
high school in 1969, the year he began publishing poetry, and attended Pomona College
from 1969 to 1971. He has also attended the University of Iowa, Grinnell College,
Northern Iowa University and Iowa State University. His books of poetry include Manifestation Wolverine: The Collected Poetry of Ray Young Bear (Open Road Media, 2015), The Rock Island Hiking Club (University of Iowa Press, 2001), The Invisible Musician (Holy Cow! Press, 1990), Winter of the Salamander: The Keeper of Importance (Harper & Row, 1980), and Waiting to be Fed (Graywolf Press, 1975). Young Bear is also the author of Black Eagle Child (University of Iowa Press, 1992) and Remnants of the First Earth (Grove Press, 1998), which received the Ruth Suckow Award as an outstanding work
of fiction about Iowa.
Young Bear has received numerous honors and awards, including a 2016 American Book
Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an honorary doctorate
in letters from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. He has taught creative writing and
Native American literature at The Institute of American Indian Art, Eastern Washington
University, Meskwaki Elementary School, the University of Iowa, and at Iowa State
University. Young Bear and his wife, Stella, also co-founded the Woodland Singers
and Dancers. Among his accomplishments, Young Bear cherishes the ability to speak
and write in his first language. He presently lives on tribally owned land that was
established by his maternal grandfather, a hereditary Chief, in 1856.
Photo of Ray Young Bear by Stella Lasley-Young Bear
