SAIO 50 for 50: Tanaya Winder

This Week's Spotlight:  Tanaya Winder ('08, English)

Winder (Southern Ute, Duckwater Shoshone, Pyramid Lake Paiute, Diné, Black) is the Director of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Upward Bound program and a poet, vocalist, writer, and motivational speaker who has performed throughout Turtle Island in various indigenous communities, universities, and venues like the Lincoln Center and John F. Kennedy Center. She is the founder of Dream Warriors, a management company for indigenous artists, speakers, and educators. Winder is also a co-founder of As/Us: A Space for Women of the World, a literary magazine publishing works by Indigenous women and women of color, and Sing Our Rivers Red, a traveling earring exhibit raising awareness about murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.

Winder’s published works include the poetry collection Words Like Love, chapbook Why Storms are Named After People and Bullets Remain Nameless, and her forthcoming second poetry collection When Stars Fall From the Sky from University of New Mexico Press.

Winder is a recipient of A Room Of Her Own Foundation’s Orlando prize, a former First Peoples Fund Artists in Business Leadership fellow, and was named to the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s 40 Under 40. In addition to her Stanford degree, Winder holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of New Mexico. Learn more about her work at www.tanayawinder.com.  

Tanaya's Interview