Denise Sweet is an Anishinnaabe poet [White Earth] and a Professor of Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She teaches creative writing, literature and mythology, as well as a travel seminar involving fieldwork among the Mayan peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula and Guatemala. She has presented nearly 100 public readings around the United States, in Canada, Mexico and Guatemala, and has served as poet-in-residence in public and tribal schools as well as at Grand Marais Art Colony in northern Minnesota and at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. She is also part of the staff of artists and writers at the Split Rock Arts program in Duluth, MN. Besides the awards and publications listed below, her work has been commissioned by the Great Lakes Inter-tribal Council, and has appeared in museum art exhibits as part of multimedia presentations of Native American creative expression.
Denise is currently the Chair for the American Indian Studies Program at UW-Green Bay and was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professorin 1998. She has been an Adjunct Instructor at the College of the Menominee Nation and is currently an Adjunct Instructor at Mount Senario College. She is the director of Who We Are, What Is Ours: Young Writer's Workshop, UW-Green Bay's first self-sponsored pre-college program for students of color.
Denise has been a consultant-grantwriter for the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin and was the Coordinator of Conferences & Institutes from 1985 to 1989 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She is also a speaker on topics such as women's wellness, eating disorders among native women, and substance abuse prevention. She has delivered the keynote address at the Wisconsin Academy of Poets, the Multi-Ethnic Youth Leadership Conference and the Texas State University Annual Native American Literary Symposium, among others. Her workshop and conference presentations include the First Annual Returning the Gift Native Writer's Festival, the National Native Women's Wellness Conference, the Wisconsin Indian Education Conference and the University of Wisconsin System Colloquium on Race and Ethnicity. She is also the owner of Sweet Associates, a communication consultant group.
She is working on a third collection of poems entitled As Those With Faith Will Do. Denise is the mother of two fine Anishinaabe sons, Damon and Vaughn.
During the month of June, 1998, Denise is participating in the Protect The Earth Journey, walking from the Red Cliff Chippewa Reservation on Lake Superior to the State Capitol in Madison to garner support for a constitutional amendment to protect air, water, and other forms of common property. This Common Property proposal is also being called the "Seventh Generation Amendment." A special Sesquicentennial Legislative Session will be requested to endorse the proposal. They are walking into towns, villages, reservations and settlements for the next thirty days to gather information, opinions and supportfor the 7th Generation Amendment. She thinks the citizens of Wisconsin have plenty to say about the influx of mining interests into our state and the heavy lobbying that goes on in the state capitol which has resulted in favorable, pro-mining legislation in the past.
Denise received the Diane Decorah Award for Poetry in 1995from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas for her book of poems,Songs for Discharming. Songs for Discharming was also awarded the 1998 Posner Award for Poetry from the Wisconsin Council of Writers.She placed 2nd in the Santa Fe Indian Market Poetry Competition in 1995 with the poem Veteran's Dance.
Denise was named Woman of the Year in 1985 by the Positive Indian Development Center and the Wisconsin Women's Council.In 1995 she was awarded the Outstanding Woman of Color by theUniversity of Wisconsin system, recognizing her achievements as a Native American Professor. In 1998 Denise is sponsored by the U.S. Embassy as one of five U.S. Native authors they send to the 1st World Congress of Indigenous Literatures of the Americas in Guatemala City, July 27 through August 1st.
This is an "official" site in that this page was constructed with the assistance and active collaboration of the poet, Denise Sweet.
© 1997 Denise Sweet and Karen Strom.
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