Hogan, Linda

Linda Hogan, (born July 16, 1947, Denver, Colorado, U.S.), Chickasaw poet and novelist whose works often revolve around environmental concerns.

Hogan spent most of her youth in Oklahoma and Colorado, although her family moved regularly because her father was in the military. She completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, in her late 20s and went on to receive a master’s degree in English and creative writing at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1978. Her first collection of poetry, Calling Myself Home, was published the same year.

Parenthood and caring for future generations became a major theme of Hogan’s work after she adopted two Lakota girls in 1979. The poems in her next two collections, Daughters, I Love You (1981) and Eclipse (1983), emphasize the importance of preserving the environment and cultural heritage. They also meditate on threats such as war and nuclear proliferation. A number of Hogan’s subsequent books—including the volumes of poetry Seeing Through the Sun (1985), Savings (1988), and Dark. Sweet. (2014) and the novels Mean Spirit (1990), Solar Storms (1995), and People of the Whale (2008)—address ecological issues and the dispossession of Native Americans. Hogan also wrote the essay collection Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World (1995) and the memoir The Woman Who Watches Over the World (2001).