Elissa Washuta facts for kids
Elissa Washuta is a Native American author from the Cowlitz people. She grew up in Washington State. She has written books about her experiences as a young adult. She also writes about her identity within the Indigenous community of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
In 2019, Washuta was an assistant professor of English. She taught in the Creative Writing program at Ohio State University.
Early Life and Education
Elissa Washuta's mother is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Elissa lived in the Columbia River Gorge region. Her parents met while they were in college in Seattle. They later moved to New Jersey.
Washuta finished high school in Hackettstown, New Jersey in 2003. Her family was the only enrolled Cowlitz tribal members in her hometown. The Cowlitz tribe did not have a reservation until 2015. The government then gave them land near Ridgefield.
Washuta went to the University of Maryland. She graduated with high honors in 2007. She then earned a master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of Washington in 2009.
Career as a Writer and Teacher
Washuta worked at the Richard Hugo House. This is a center for writers in Seattle. There, she helped new writers. She taught classes on writing memoirs. Memoirs are true stories about a person's life.
From 2010 to 2014, Washuta taught at the University of Washington. In 2016, she was a Writer-In-Residence. She wrote about the history of Seattle's Fremont Bridge.
She worked for the Institute of American Indian Arts. Later, she became an Assistant Professor at Ohio State University. She started teaching there in 2017. Her courses focused on Creative Writing. In 2019, she was invited to speak at Cornell University.
Washuta is known for expanding Native American writings. She is recognized alongside other important Native American writers.
From 2010 to 2017, she was an Academic Counselor. She worked for the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. She also helped coordinate youth programs at the Richard Hugo House for eight months.
Washuta has written essays for magazines like Guernica and Salon.com. She also helped edit a book called Exquisite Vessel: Shapes of Native Nonfiction. This book was published by the University of Washington Press. She also contributed to This Is The Place: Women Writing About Home. This book was a New York Times Editors Best Pick.
Awards and Recognition
Elissa Washuta has received several awards for her writing.
- She received a $25,000 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. This helped her career.
- She won the Artists Trusts Innovator Award. This award goes to very talented artists.
- She also won the 4Culture Art Project Award. This award helps artists in King County, Washington, share their work.
- Her book, My Body Is a Book of Rules, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in 2015.
