Quick Facts
Biography
Kim Shuck is a Tsalagi (Cherokee)/Euro-American poet, author, weaver, and bead work artist who draws from Southeastern Native American culture and tradition as well as contemporary urban Indian life. She was born in San Francisco, California and belongs to the northern California Cherokee diaspora. She is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She earned a B.A. in Art (1994), and M.F.A. in Textiles (1998) from San Francisco State University. Her basket weaving work is influenced by her grandmother Etta Mae Rowe and the long history of California Native American basket making.
She has taught American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University and was an artist in residence at the de Young Museum in June 2010 with Michael Horse.
On June 21, 2017, Mayor Ed Lee named Kim as the 7th poet laureate of San Francisco.
Awards
- 2008 KQED Local Hero Award, American Indian Heritage Month
- 2007 Smuggling Cherokee, Poetry Foundation bestseller list (March)
- 2006 Smuggling Cherokee, SPD Books bestseller list (March)
- 2005 Mentor of the Year Award Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers
- 2005 Native Writers of the Americas First Book, Diane Decorah Award
- 2004 Mary Tallmountain Award