Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time. Collection includes sound recordings, moving images, and digital files to which access is restricted. Access to these materials is governed by repository policy and may require the production of listening or viewing copies. Researchers requiring access must notify Special Collections and University Archives in advance and pay fees for reproduction services as necessary.
Paula Gunn Allen (1939-2008) was a Native American author, literary critic, activist, and scholar known for her contributions to American Indian studies and the nascent field of Indigenous feminism. She was also a founding leader in the contemporary women's spirituality movement.
Allen was born on October 24, 1939 and grew up in a village on the Cubero land grant in New Mexico. Of mixed Laguna, Sioux, Scottish, and Lebanese-American descent, Allen identified most closely with the Laguna, among whom she spent her childhood and upbringing.
Allen received her BA in English in 1966 and her MFA in creative writing in 1968, both from the University of Oregon. She earned her PhD in American studies in 1976 from the University of New Mexico. She was a professor of Native American and ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley and was later a professor of English, creative writing, and American Indian studies at the University of California, Los Angeles before she retired in 1999.
Allen's work was widely recognized and was the recipient of many literary honors, including postdoctoral fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ford Foundation-National Research Council, the Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Achievement in American Literary Studies from the Modern Language Association, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas, the Susan Koppelman Award from the Popular and American Culture Associations, the Native American Prize for Literature, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship.
Paula Gunn Allen died at her home in Ft. Bragg, California, on May 29, 2008.
The Paula Gunn Allen papers document Allen's career as a poet, novelist, essayist, literary critic, and educator. The papers include materials related to her writing and literary career, workshop material, and audio recordings.
The writing and literary career series documents Paula Gunn Allen's output of fiction, poetry, literary criticism, biography, essays, and editorial work created between circa 1970 and 2000. The bulk of the series includes original manuscript drafts and supplementary material for Allen's published works. The series also includes material related to her professional literary career including book reviews, correspondence, permission requests, CV, publicity photos, awards and honors, PhD proposal, and publishing contracts.
The workshop material series includes lecture transcripts, notes, diagrams, and handouts for workshops and seminars on spirituality led by Paula Gunn Allen in Seattle and the Bay Area between 1984 and 1987.
The audio recordings series includes 62 cassette tapes recorded by Paula Gunn Allen between 1985 and 1990.