Danielle Shandiin Emerson is a Diné writer from Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Nation. Her clans are Tłaashchi’i (Red Cheek People Clan), born for Ta’neezaahníí (Tangled People Clan). She has a B.A. in Education Studies and a B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University. She has received support from GrubStreet, Lambda Literary, The Diné Artisan + Author Capacity Building Institute, Ucross Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and Sundress Publications. Between 2023-2024, she was the Associates’ of the Boston Public Library’s Writer-in-Residence. She has work published and/or forthcoming from swamp pink, Uncharted Magazine, Poets.org, Yellow Medicine Review, Thin Air Magazine, The Chapter House Journal, and others. Her writing centers healing, kinship, language-learning, and family.
Residency Project: The idea for this poetry collection started as five short poems. Danielle wrote these poems as an ode to contemporary Diné life, language-learning, and loved ones.
While at Tin House, she plans to work on a memoir-inspired collection of contemporary Diné poems, grounded in a clay-like voice, taking after the artists in her family before her, and incorporating the exploration of language-learning and revitalization. These poems are sincere odes towards familial, cultural, and community-based experiences as a young Diné girl growing up on The Navajo Nation. This literary work is an exploration of Dinétics (Diné Poetics), the intricate layers of language and place-based (Shiprock, New Mexico) poetry, and the breathing bonds formed between family, Diné culture, home, memories, and storytelling.