Navajo poet wins award

Award marks a milestone in poet's careerBitsui wove his sacred words, one by precise one, into a book of poems called “Shapeshift.” The book, published by the University of Arizona Press in 2003, and Bitsui's growing body of poetry in magazines and journals brought him a $40,000 prize in October as one of 10 recipients of the 2006 Whiting Writers' Awards.

“I feel very humbled,” said Bitsui, 31, a Navajo from the reservation community of White Cone in northeastern Arizona. “It was a wonderful ceremony, a great honor ... The money offers me time to work on my next collection.”