Linda Hogan goes home

A Chickasaw writer returns to her heartlandFor Native people, tribal homelands beckon. We are the places of our origins.

For acclaimed Chickasaw writer Linda Hogan, returning to her Oklahoma roots was a discovery of connectedness that defies years lived in other places.

She is the author of “People of the Whale,” a recently released novel chronicling conflicted lives and the complexity of indigenous heritage, and herself was called a writer of “unparalleled gifts for truth and magic” by Barbara Kingsolver.

Hogan, a poet, novelist and essayist, was recently named to the Chickasaw Hall of Fame. She has also been a writer-in-residence for the states of Colorado and Oklahoma and professor at the University of Minnesota and University of Colorado. She has served on the National Endowment for the Arts and has received awards from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, National Book Critics Circle Award, Before Columbus Foundation, Lannan Award, Colorado Book Award and more, including a Guggenheim grant. Her novel, “Mean Spirit,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1990.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.