Tiffany Midge facts for kids

Tiffany Midge (born July 2, 1965) is an important Native American poet, editor, and writer. She is a member of the Hunkpapa Lakota people, part of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

About Tiffany Midge's Early Life and School

Tiffany Midge was born on July 2, 1965. Her mother, Alita Rose, worked for King County, and her father, Herman Lloyd, was a teacher.

Tiffany's mother was Lakota Sioux and grew up on a reservation in eastern Montana. Her father's family came from Germany, near the Volga River in Russia, and he grew up on a farm in Montana.

Tiffany grew up in the Pacific Northwest, a region in the western United States. For some of her childhood, she lived in the Snoqualmie Valley in Washington (state). She has an older half-sister named Julie.

In 2008, Tiffany Midge earned a special degree called an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in creative writing from the University of Idaho.

Tiffany Midge's Career as a Writer

Tiffany Midge's poems are known for showing how people can have different parts to their identity. Her writing also often includes a lot of humor.

In 2002, a Finnish composer named Seppo Pohjola asked Tiffany Midge to create a work for a choir. This piece was called Cedars and was performed by the Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theater in Seattle. In 2015, Cedars was performed again in New York City by the Mirage Theatre Company at La MaMa. This work combines poetry and stories with music. The newer version also included writings from many other Native American authors.

Tiffany Midge used to write funny articles for Indian Country Today, which is part of the Indian Country Media Network.

In 2019, she published a book about her life called Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's. This book was released by University of Nebraska Press. Reviewers have said the book uses humor to talk about difficult feelings, including satire and jokes that are especially for Native American readers.

Tiffany Midge's poems, stories, and creative non-fiction have appeared in many different magazines and collections. Some of these include McSweeney's, The Toast Butter Blog, Waxwing, and World Literature Today.

Teaching and Fellowships

Tiffany Midge was a professor at Northwest Indian College. There, she taught students how to write and compose essays.

In the spring of 2019, she was a special guest at the University of Kansas Hall Center for the Humanities. This role is called the Simons Public Humanities fellow.

Awards and Honors for Tiffany Midge

Tiffany Midge has received several awards for her writing:

• 2017: She won the Western Heritage Award for Poetry Book from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for her book The Woman Who Married A Bear.
• 2015–2018: She was named the Poet Laureate for Moscow, Idaho. This means she was the official poet for the city.
• 2017: She received the Kenyon Review Earthworks Prize for Indigenous Poetry for The Woman Who Married A Bear.
• 1994: She won the Diane Decorah Poetry Award/First Book Awards for Poetry from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas for her book Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of a Mixed-Up Halfbreed.

Tiffany Midge's Personal Life

Tiffany Midge lives in Moscow, Idaho, which she calls Nez Perce country, and also in Seattle, Washington.

Selected Works and Publications

Books

• Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of a Mixed-Up Halfbreed (1994)
• The Woman Who Married A Bear (2016)
• Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's (2019)