Is the 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman with R.C. Gorman drawings real, and how do I identify it?

Yes, it is real, and it is one of the most distinctive bibliographic items in her catalog. Seasonal Woman was published in 1982 by Tooth of Time Books — a small Santa Fe literary press — with original drawings by R.C. Gorman (the Diné artist whose Taos gallery made him one of the best-known Native American visual artists of the late twentieth century). Identification markers: 'Tooth of Time Books' on the title page and colophon; 'Santa Fe' in the imprint address; R.C. Gorman's drawings interspersed with the poems, typically rendered in black line; 1982 copyright date.

What about Sáanii Dahataał: The Women Are Singing — which is the collectible edition?

Sáanii Dahataał: The Women Are Singing was published in 1993 by the University of Arizona Press as volume 23 of the Sun Tracks American Indian Literary Series — the same series that holds Silko's Storyteller context, Ortiz's Woven Stone, and Harjo's Secrets from the Center of the World. The true first edition was simultaneous hardcover-in-dust-jacket and paperback. The hardcover in jacket is the collectible; the paperback is a reading copy. The book won the 1994 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Identification: 'University of Arizona Press' on the spine, Sun Tracks series volume 23 on the series page, 1993 copyright with the full number line '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10' indicating a first printing (later printings drop digits from the left).

What is A Breeze Swept Through, and why does it matter for Albuquerque collectors?

A Breeze Swept Through was published in 1987 by West End Press — which is itself important to Albuquerque book collecting. West End Press was the small literary press founded by John Crawford, longtime affiliated with UNM, and it published early work by a generation of New Mexico poets including Jimmy Santiago Baca, Margaret Randall, and Tapahonso. A Breeze Swept Through is Tapahonso's first West End book and the bridge between the early chapbooks (One More Shiprock Night, Seasonal Woman) and her University of Arizona Sun Tracks trade career. Identification: 'West End Press' on the cover and title page, 'Albuquerque' in the imprint, 1987 copyright. Paperback original; West End Press did not typically issue simultaneous hardcovers.

How do I authenticate a Luci Tapahonso signature? Is she still signing?

Yes, the Tapahonso signing pool is actively open. She reads and signs regularly at Bookworks on Rio Grande, at UNM English Department and Native American Studies events (she is a UNM BA 1980 and MA 1983 graduate, and was longtime UNM faculty), at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, at Collected Works in Santa Fe, at Diné College in Tsaile, at the University of Arizona Tucson (where she also taught), and at Navajo Nation events — including as Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation during her 2013–2015 appointment. Real signatures appear on the title page or half-title, usually in blue or black ink, typically 'Luci Tapahonso' in a controlled script. She will sometimes inscribe in Diné bizaad (the Navajo language), occasionally with a short phrase or a clan greeting. Because the signing pool is open, a signed later-printing paperback is nice but common.

She was Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation — are signed books from 2013–2015 more valuable?

Moderately, but the market hasn't priced this premium in the way it has priced the U.S. Poet Laureate appointments of Momaday or Harjo. Luci Tapahonso was named the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation in 2013 and served through 2015 — a historic appointment (the first in Navajo Nation history) but one that is still being absorbed by the broader rare-book market. What this means practically: a Tapahonso signed during her 2013–2015 Laureate term, especially with 'Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation' or similar notation, is a meaningful bibliographic artifact and is likely to become more sought as her career is historicized. As of today, though, the hardcover first-edition signatures that move the needle most are on the Arizona Sun Tracks trade firsts (1993, 1997, 2008) and the early chapbooks (1981 Tejas, 1982 Tooth of Time), not specifically on Laureate-period signings.

Will you buy my Luci Tapahonso collection before seeing it in person?

For a handful of notable titles — a 1981 Tejas Art Press One More Shiprock Night, a 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman (especially co-signed with R.C. Gorman), a signed Arizona Sun Tracks Sáanii Dahataał — a photo-and-text exchange usually gets me to an offer or to a house call. For a larger Tapahonso collection, especially an estate that includes the Tejas chapbook, the Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman, the 1987 West End Press A Breeze Swept Through, the full Arizona Sun Tracks run (Sáanii Dahataał 1993, Blue Horses Rush In 1997, A Radiant Curve 2008), and the Songs of Shiprock Fair children's book, I will come to your Albuquerque-area home free of charge, look at each copy, and make a cash offer on the spot. Anything I don't buy can be donated through New Mexico Literacy Project on the same trip. You don't sort, you don't box, you don't do anything but say yes or no to the offer.

Deep-Dive · ABQ Book Buyer

Selling Luci Tapahonso Books in Albuquerque

Q: Which Luci Tapahonso book is the most collectible?

Three strong answers, each on a different axis. For the earliest bibliographic item, the 1981 Tejas Art Press One More Shiprock Night is her first book — a slim chapbook out of San Antonio in a small print run, genuinely scarce. For the visual-collaboration axis, the 1982 Tooth of Time Books Seasonal Woman is paired with drawings by R.C. Gorman, the celebrated Navajo artist — which makes it a crossover collectible sought by both poetry and Southwest-art collectors. For the trade canon, the 1993 University of Arizona Sáanii Dahataał: The Women Are Singing (Sun Tracks vol.

The 1981 Tejas Art Press One More Shiprock Night. The 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman with R.C. Gorman drawings. The 1987 West End Press A Breeze Swept Through. The Arizona Sun Tracks volumes — Sáanii Dahataał, Blue Horses Rush In, A Radiant Curve. Signature authentication. Honest next steps — from a book buyer who has been looking at Tapahonso shelves in ABQ estate libraries for a decade.

Last verified May 2026 · Original research by Josh Eldred

Why this page exists

I'm Josh Eldred. I've been buying used books from Albuquerque homes for a decade, and Luci Tapahonso — Diné (Navajo) poet of the Salt Water and Bitter Water Clans, born at Shiprock in 1953, and the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation (2013–2015) — shows up on a distinctive kind of ABQ shelf. Tapahonso earned her UNM BA in 1980 and her MA in 1983, then spent decades on the UNM English faculty before moving to the University of Arizona and eventually returning to New Mexico. When a Tapahonso shelf appears in an Albuquerque home, it is almost always a UNM English or Native American Studies reader, a Bookworks regular, or a Navajo-Nation-adjacent household with genuine community connection.

Tapahonso is also a living working poet. She reads and signs at Bookworks, UNM, Collected Works, Diné College, and Navajo Nation events. That changes how signed copies move: signed later-printing paperbacks are common, but a 1981 Tejas Art Press One More Shiprock Night or a 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman co-signed by R.C. Gorman is a different bibliographic object entirely.

How to use this page: scroll to the book or era you have, read the identification notes, photograph the cover and copyright page (and, if signed, the title page), and text them to 702-496-4214. I will tell you honestly whether the photos are enough, whether it is worth a house call, or whether the free donation pickup is the cleaner path.

Why you won't find dollar figures on this page

Native-literature collecting moves with syllabi, appointments, and anniversaries. A 1993 Sáanii Dahataał first that sits quietly through summer can move three times in a month when a Native-literature professor assigns it in September. A Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation appointment in 2013 reshaped the market for Tapahonso. A subsequent U.S. appointment of another Navajo-adjacent writer, or a Sun Tracks anthology retrospective, could reshape it again. Any number I posted today could be stale by next syllabus season.

The identification work on this page, though, does not change. A 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman with R.C. Gorman drawings is the same book it was in 1982. Whether that book is worth mid-range prices or upper collectible prices to a given buyer on a given day is a market question. Whether it is the Tooth of Time 1982 first with the authentic Gorman illustrations is a bibliographic question with a clean answer.

So I focus on what's stable: how to identify what you have. The dollar conversation happens with the book in front of me.

Jump To

• Biography & ABQ context • One More Shiprock Night • Seasonal Woman • A Breeze Swept Through • Sáanii Dahataał • Blue Horses Rush In • Songs of Shiprock Fair • A Radiant Curve • Signature authentication • Frequent questions • What to do next

Diné · UNM BA 1980 / MA 1983 · Navajo Nation Poet Laureate

Luci Tapahonso in brief

Luci Tapahonso was born November 8, 1953, at Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation, an enrolled Diné citizen of the Tó'aheedlíinii (Water Flows Together) clan, born for the Tódích'íi'nii (Bitter Water) clan. She grew up on the Navajo Nation, moved to Albuquerque to attend the University of New Mexico, and completed her BA in English and Journalism in 1980 and her MA in English and Creative Writing in 1983. She was part of the same UNM literary cohort that produced Leslie Marmon Silko, Simon J. Ortiz, and Joy Harjo, and she was mentored in her early years by Rudolfo Anaya, who taught at UNM.

Tapahonso was on the UNM faculty for many years before taking a professorship in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona, and she eventually returned to New Mexico. In 2013 she was named the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation — a historic appointment, the first such position in Navajo Nation history — and she served through 2015. Her work is written in a bilingual English–Diné bizaad (Navajo) idiom, with Diné words and sentences carried into the English text without translation, which is both a literary and a political choice.

Her bibliography concentrates at three presses: Tejas Art Press (San Antonio, her first chapbook), Tooth of Time Books (Santa Fe, the R.C. Gorman collaboration), West End Press (Albuquerque, John Crawford's UNM-adjacent press), and the University of Arizona Press Sun Tracks series (her trade hardcover career). Two of her books — Sáanii Dahataał: The Women Are Singing (1993) and A Radiant Curve (2008) — won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

In Albuquerque, the Tapahonso shelf I see most often begins with one or two Arizona Sun Tracks hardcovers, often carries a West End Press paperback alongside, and — in the rare exceptional library — includes the Tejas Art Press chapbook or the Gorman-illustrated Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman. The identification pages below move chronologically, from her scarcest early chapbooks to the recent Sun Tracks hardcovers.

1981 · Tejas Art Press · Chapbook

One More Shiprock Night

One More Shiprock Night is Luci Tapahonso's first book, published in 1981 by Tejas Art Press in San Antonio — a small regional literary press with a modest distribution footprint. The title refers to her home community of Shiprock on the Navajo Nation, and the poems are an early sketch of the Diné voice she would later develop fully in the West End and Arizona books. It is the hardest Tapahonso title to find in clean shape.

What to look for

Publisher colophon: "Tejas Art Press" on the cover or title page, with "San Antonio" or "San Antonio, Texas" in the colophon.
Format: chapbook — saddle-stapled or perfect-bound softcover depending on which printing. Small-run regional production, no simultaneous hardcover.
Page count: slim — typically described as under fifty pages.
Copyright page: 1981 publication year with "Copyright © 1981 by Luci Tapahonso" or similar formulation.
Condition: because Tejas Art Press distribution was small-press regional, most surviving copies were held by working poets and academics rather than the general public. A clean copy is genuinely scarce.

Why it matters: this is the earliest Tapahonso bibliographic item, and it almost never surfaces in ordinary Albuquerque donation piles. A One More Shiprock Night that shows up in an Albuquerque estate is almost always from a creative-writing faculty library or from a household with direct Tapahonso-cohort UNM connections — check the owner's provenance.

1982 · Tooth of Time Books · R.C. Gorman drawings · Crossover collectible

Seasonal Woman

Seasonal Woman was published in 1982 by Tooth of Time Books — a small Santa Fe literary press — with original drawings by R.C. Gorman (the Diné visual artist whose Taos gallery made him one of the best-known Native American painters and printmakers of the late twentieth century). The book is unusual in Tapahonso's catalog for being a visual-collaboration volume, and its crossover appeal to both poetry and Southwest-art collectors makes it one of the strongest bibliographic items in her career.

What to look for

Publisher: "Tooth of Time Books" on the title page and colophon, with "Santa Fe" or "Santa Fe, New Mexico" in the imprint block.
Gorman illustrations: R.C. Gorman's original drawings interleave with the poems, typically rendered as black line drawings. The presence and quality of the Gorman illustrations is the single biggest identification tell — they are distinctive and recognizable to anyone familiar with his gallery work.
Format: simultaneous trade paperback and limited signed hardcover. The trade paperback is the common copy; the signed limited hardcover is genuinely scarce.
Double-signed copies: the signed limited issue was signed by both Tapahonso and Gorman. Because Gorman died in 2005, any double-signed copy dates from 1982–2005 exclusively, and the Gorman signature pool on this book is now permanently closed. A Tapahonso-only signed copy is common; a Tapahonso-and-Gorman double-signed copy is the strong item.
Copyright page: "Copyright © 1982 by Luci Tapahonso" with drawings attributed to R.C. Gorman, Tooth of Time Books Santa Fe address.

Crossover signal: a Gorman-illustrated book on a southwest-poetry shelf is worth careful attention. Gorman's own monographs and print portfolios sometimes sit adjacent on the same shelf, and the combination — a Seasonal Woman plus Gorman's Navajo Woman monograph — is a curator-style library and almost always rewards a close look at every Native-art title on the same shelf.

1987 · West End Press · Albuquerque · Paperback original

A Breeze Swept Through

A Breeze Swept Through was published in 1987 by West End Press — the small literary press founded by John Crawford and longtime affiliated with UNM, which published early work by a generation of New Mexico poets including Jimmy Santiago Baca, Margaret Randall, and Tapahonso. It is Tapahonso's first West End book and the bridge between the early chapbooks and her University of Arizona Sun Tracks trade career. For Albuquerque estate collectors, it is a provenance anchor — a West End shelf almost always indicates a UNM-adjacent household.

What to look for

Publisher: "West End Press" on the cover and title page, with "Albuquerque" in the imprint block. West End Press printed from Albuquerque (and briefly from Minneapolis earlier in its history), and the Albuquerque imprint is the one tied to the Tapahonso-Baca-Randall era.
Format: trade paperback original. West End Press did not typically issue simultaneous hardcovers, so there is no hardcover first to look for.
Cover: modest design typical of small-press 1980s production. Copies with clean covers and uncreased spines are uncommon because West End Press books were distributed through poetry-reading channels rather than bookstore chains, and many copies were handled actively.
Copyright page: "Copyright © 1987 by Luci Tapahonso" with the West End Press Albuquerque address.

Provenance signal: a West End Press shelf — Tapahonso's A Breeze Swept Through plus Baca titles, Margaret Randall's poetry, John Crawford's own work — is a strong UNM-adjacent provenance indicator. The rest of that shelf usually includes other small-press New Mexico titles worth a close look.

1993 · University of Arizona Press · Sun Tracks vol. 23 · American Book Award

Sáanii Dahataał: The Women Are Singing

Sáanii Dahataał: The Women Are Singing is the book that moved Luci Tapahonso from important small-press New Mexico poet to national-stature Native American writer. Published in 1993 by the University of Arizona Press as volume 23 of the Sun Tracks American Indian Literary Series — the same series that holds Silko's Storyteller context, Ortiz's Woven Stone, and Harjo's Secrets from the Center of the World — it won the American Book Award in 1994. The title is in Diné bizaad (Navajo), and the book's bilingual practice — Navajo words and sentences carried into English text without translation — was its signature contribution.

How to tell the 1993 Arizona first

Simultaneous hardcover and paperback. The hardcover in dust jacket is the collectible first; the simultaneous paperback is a fine reading copy but is not the stronger item.
Publisher: "University of Arizona Press" on the spine and title page, with "Sun Tracks: An American Indian Literary Series, volume 23" on the series page. The Sun Tracks series has a recognizable spine treatment — a plain paperback without the series branding on a post-1993 printing indicates a later edition.
Copyright page: "Copyright © 1993 by Luci Tapahonso" with the University of Arizona Press Tucson address. The full number line "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" (all ten digits present) indicates a first printing. Later printings drop digits from the left (a "2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" line is a second printing, and so on).
Dust jacket: distinctive Sun Tracks series jacket design. Unclipped jackets preserve the jacket-flap price, which matters to some collectors.

1997 · University of Arizona Press · Sun Tracks vol. 34 · Mountains & Plains Award

Blue Horses Rush In: Poems and Stories

Blue Horses Rush In was published in 1997 by the University of Arizona Press as volume 34 of the Sun Tracks series. The book combines poetry and short prose — Tapahonso's signature mixed-genre mode — and won the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association Award for Regional Book of the Year in 1998. The title poem, written for her granddaughter, has been widely anthologized.

What to look for

Publisher: "University of Arizona Press" on the spine, "Sun Tracks volume 34" on the series page.
Format: simultaneous hardcover and paperback. Hardcover in dust jacket is the collectible; paperback is a reading copy.
Copyright page: 1997 copyright with full number line "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" for a first printing.
Dust jacket: Sun Tracks series jacket design, continuous with Sáanii Dahataał and A Radiant Curve as a shelf set.

1999 · Kiva Publishing · Children's book · Anthony Chee Emerson illustrations

Songs of Shiprock Fair

Songs of Shiprock Fair is Tapahonso's 1999 children's picture book, illustrated by Diné artist Anthony Chee Emerson and published by Kiva Publishing. The book takes the annual Northern Navajo Nation Fair at Shiprock as its subject. Kiva Publishing is a Santa Fe–area small press specializing in Southwest and Native American-themed children's literature. The book is oversize, profusely illustrated, and regularly surfaces on the children's-book shelf of ABQ estates with grandchildren-age readers.

What to look for

Publisher: "Kiva Publishing" on the title page and copyright page.
Illustrator: Anthony Chee Emerson is credited on the cover and title page. His color illustrations are the visual signature of the book.
Format: oversize picture book in hardcover with dust jacket or library-binding paperback. Hardcover in clean jacket is the collectible; a stamped library-discard copy is a reading copy.
Copyright page: 1999 copyright.

Cross-signal: a Songs of Shiprock Fair on a children's-book shelf alongside other Kiva Publishing titles (Rudolfo Anaya's Roadrunner's Dance, for example) indicates a family that bought Southwest children's literature intentionally. That shelf usually has other titles worth a close look — Anaya picture books, Pat Mora children's books, Simon Ortiz's The People Shall Continue.

2008 · University of Arizona Press · Sun Tracks vol. 64 · American Book Award

A Radiant Curve: Poems and Stories

A Radiant Curve was published in 2008 by the University of Arizona Press as volume 64 of the Sun Tracks series. Like Blue Horses Rush In, it combines poetry and short prose, and it won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2009 — Tapahonso's second American Book Award. The book draws together family material, birth and death writing, and the evolving Navajo-English bilingual practice that characterizes her mature work.

What to look for

Publisher: "University of Arizona Press" on the spine, "Sun Tracks volume 64" on the series page.
Format: simultaneous hardcover and paperback. Hardcover in dust jacket is the collectible.
Copyright page: 2008 copyright with full number line "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" for a first printing.
Dust jacket: continuous Sun Tracks series jacket treatment. The three Sun Tracks Tapahonso volumes (1993 Sáanii, 1997 Blue Horses, 2008 Radiant Curve) are a natural shelf set and are frequently bought and shelved together.

Quickest read-out: if you have a Tapahonso hardcover with "University of Arizona Press" and "Sun Tracks" on the spine, photograph the cover, spine, copyright page (especially the number line), and — if signed — the title page. Text them to 702-496-4214. These are the Tapahonso items I most want to see.

Signing pool: OPEN · Still active

Signature authentication

Luci Tapahonso has signed regularly across New Mexico, Arizona, and the Navajo Nation for nearly forty-five years. The Albuquerque signing record runs through Bookworks on Rio Grande, UNM English Department and Native American Studies events (she is a UNM BA 1980 and MA 1983 alumna and longtime UNM faculty), the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and Bookworks signings for new Sun Tracks releases. The Santa Fe signing record runs through Collected Works and the Institute of American Indian Arts. The Navajo Nation signing record runs through Diné College in Tsaile, Navajo Nation Fair events at Shiprock and Window Rock, and the 2013–2015 Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation appointment events. The Tucson record runs through the University of Arizona, which published most of her trade career.

Signature tells

Location: title page or half-title, almost never the front free endpaper. The front free endpaper is where gift inscriptions live — those are not author signatures.
Ink: blue or black ballpoint or fine-point felt-tip. Never embossed; she does not use a bookplate.
Script: "Luci Tapahonso" in a controlled, written-out hand. The "L" of "Luci" has a consistent descender; the "T" of "Tapahonso" is typically a clean crossbar.
Inscriptions: frequently personal — "for [name]" or with a short phrase. She will sometimes inscribe in Diné bizaad (the Navajo language), occasionally with a clan greeting or a short Diné phrase. A Diné-language inscription alongside the English signature is an authentication plus.
Gorman double-signed copies: on 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman copies, authentic co-signed issues carry both Tapahonso's signature and R.C. Gorman's. Gorman's signature is distinctive — typically "R.C. Gorman" with the "G" drawn as a flourish, often in the same black ink. Because Gorman died in 2005, any legitimate double-signed copy was signed during 1982–2005; a double-signed copy claiming a post-2005 date is a red flag.
Laureate-period signatures: during the 2013–2015 Navajo Nation Poet Laureate term, Tapahonso occasionally added "Navajo Nation Poet Laureate" or similar notation alongside the signature. This is a meaningful bibliographic artifact but not common.
Red-flag forgeries: printed or stamped "signatures" on later-printing paperbacks (look under magnification — real ink has variable line weight; stamps are uniformly thick), signatures on the front free endpaper or dedication page (real Tapahonso signatures are on title page or half-title), and out-of-period signed firsts — for example, a 1981 One More Shiprock Night "signed" in a gel pen (gel pens did not exist in 1981).

Frequent Questions

What people ask before texting me

Which Luci Tapahonso book is the most collectible? ▾

Three answers. For the earliest bibliographic item, the 1981 Tejas Art Press One More Shiprock Night is her first book — a scarce regional chapbook. For the visual-collaboration axis, the 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman with R.C. Gorman drawings is a crossover item sought by both poetry and Southwest-art collectors. For the trade canon, the 1993 Arizona Sun Tracks Sáanii Dahataał (American Book Award) and the 2008 Sun Tracks A Radiant Curve (American Book Award) are the two strongest hardcover firsts.

Is the 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman with R.C. Gorman drawings real? ▾

Yes. It is a 1982 Tooth of Time Books (Santa Fe) publication with original R.C. Gorman drawings. Identification: "Tooth of Time Books" imprint, "Santa Fe" in the colophon, Gorman's distinctive black-line illustrations interleaved with the poems, 1982 copyright. A simultaneous paperback and limited signed hardcover were issued. A double-signed copy — Tapahonso and Gorman — is the strong item. Because Gorman died in 2005, the Gorman signature pool on this book is permanently closed.

What about Sáanii Dahataał? ▾

Published 1993 by University of Arizona Press as volume 23 of the Sun Tracks series. American Book Award winner, 1994. Simultaneous hardcover and paperback. The hardcover in dust jacket is the collectible. Look for the full number line "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" on the copyright page — all ten digits indicate a first printing. The Sun Tracks series has a distinctive spine design that ties all series volumes together visually.

Why does A Breeze Swept Through matter for Albuquerque collectors? ▾

West End Press — John Crawford's UNM-adjacent Albuquerque press — published a generation of New Mexico poets: Baca, Margaret Randall, Tapahonso, and others. A West End shelf is a strong UNM-adjacent provenance signal. A Breeze Swept Through (1987) is Tapahonso's first West End book. Paperback original, no hardcover first. If you have it alongside Baca's early work or Randall's poetry, the rest of that shelf usually rewards a close look.

Is Luci Tapahonso still signing? How do I authenticate a signature? ▾

Yes, the signing pool is open. She reads and signs at Bookworks, UNM, Collected Works, IAIA, Diné College, and Navajo Nation events. Real signatures: title page or half-title, blue or black ink, controlled written-out script, sometimes with a Diné-language inscription or clan greeting. Red flags: printed or stamped "signatures," signatures on the front free endpaper, and out-of-period materials (gel pen on a 1981 book). For Gorman double-signed Seasonal Woman copies: Gorman died in 2005, so a legitimate double-signed copy dates from 1982–2005 exclusively.

Are Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation signed copies rarer or more valuable? ▾

Moderately collectible, but the broader rare-book market hasn't yet priced the 2013–2015 appointment premium at the level of U.S. Poet Laureate appointments like Momaday's or Harjo's. A Tapahonso signed during her Laureate term, especially with "Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation" or similar notation, is a meaningful bibliographic artifact and likely to appreciate as her career is historicized. As of today, the hardcover firsts that move the needle most are on the Arizona Sun Tracks trade volumes (1993, 1997, 2008) and the early chapbooks (1981 Tejas, 1982 Tooth of Time), not specifically Laureate-period signings.

Will you buy my Tapahonso collection before seeing it in person? ▾

For a handful of notable titles — a 1981 Tejas Art Press One More Shiprock Night, a 1982 Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman (especially Gorman-co-signed), a signed Arizona Sun Tracks Sáanii Dahataał — a photo-and-text exchange usually gets me to an offer or a house call. For a larger collection, especially one that includes the Tejas chapbook, the Tooth of Time Seasonal Woman, the 1987 West End A Breeze Swept Through, the Arizona Sun Tracks run (1993, 1997, 2008), and Songs of Shiprock Fair, I will come to your Albuquerque-area home free of charge, look at each copy, and make a cash offer on the spot. Anything I don't buy can be donated through New Mexico Literacy Project on the same trip.

Adjacent Deep-Dives

If you have Tapahonso, you likely have these too

Muscogee poet · UNM cohort · U.S. Poet Laureate

Joy Harjo

The Muscogee poet who overlapped with Tapahonso at UNM and IAIA. She Had Some Horses 1983, In Mad Love and War 1990, An American Sunrise 2019.

Laguna Pueblo · UNM cohort

Leslie Marmon Silko

The Laguna Pueblo UNM-cohort writer whose Storyteller sits in the same Arizona Sun Tracks context. Ceremony 1977, Storyteller 1981, Almanac 1991.

SF Poet · IAIA · MacArthur · Santa Fe

Arthur Sze

Compass Rose, Sight Lines. MacArthur-winning IAIA poet whose Chinese-American lineage sits next to Tapahonso's Diné voice in SF/ABQ poetry shelves.

What to do next

Have a Tapahonso shelf? Text me a photo.

The fastest path is a few photos — the cover, the spine, the copyright page, and (if signed) the title page. I will tell you honestly whether it is worth an in-person visit, or whether the free donation pickup is the cleaner path. I don't buy every Tapahonso that comes in, but I want to see every Tapahonso that comes in.

Text 702-496-4214 Free Pickup Donate the Collection