As a part of their ongoing Visiting Author Series, the Heller Center invited Diné writer Natanya Ann Pulley to read excerpts of her work and participate in a book signing. Pulley’s work explores themes of death, time and reality.
The Excel Multiliteracy Center, the Department of English and the Faculty Equity and Inclusion Committee joined to organize the March 18 event.
Pulley introduced herself in Navajo, stating her clans, her identity as a Navajo woman and her birthplace. “I like to introduce myself in this way just to make sure that I am honoring my people and to remind myself of who I am,” Pulley said.
Pulley opened with a reading from “With Teeth,” a collection of short stories that won the 2018 Many Voices Project competition. Pulley read “Did You Find Your Killer Yet?” — a story following a girl who discovers, at the same time as the people in her hometown, that she is dead.
Pulley explained the process of writing “Did You Find Your Killer Yet?” including that the piece started out as a detective story and eventually became more symbolic. “It allowed me to create this space where there is this young girl that everybody has already written off as dead, the way that we do to young girls everywhere,” Pulley said.
Pulley discussed her classification as a horror author. “I never thought of it under that genre,” she said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean there are literal monsters somewhere, but we have a lot of figurative monsters around us and within us,” she said.
The next work introduced was “In This Dream of Waking, a Weaver.” The short story depicts the main character Klea frantically trying to gather her family histories.
According to Pulley, the story parallels her personal struggle tracing her family tree through stories.
Pulley’s perception of her lineage was influenced by her mother, who was a part of the LDS Placement Program. The LDS Placement Program assigns indigenous children to live with Mormon foster families. Pulley said that Mormon ideas of ancestry and the “Navajo way of tracing back place and story and song” formed competing ways of understanding family.
“I think the story came about from really wanting an answer to this, and for me, the answer came in this metaphorical space with this character,” Pulley said.
Pulley also shared a story from her upcoming non-fiction book. “I Never Thought it Was Identity” is an autobiographical essay. It explores Pulley’s childhood perceptions of the world and reveals aspects of her Navajo upbringing.
The essay follows the non-linear style of Navajo storytelling. “I am comfortable writing essays that allow somebody to sit in them and find out what they mean,” Pulley said.
Along with her writing, Pulley is a nationally recognized horror editor and educator. In 2022, she became the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing. Her non-fiction collection is set to be released in 2026.
Catherine Grandorff, a teaching professor for the Department of English and the UCCS author coordinator, introduced the event. “Through a fearless embrace of the unconventional, [Pulley] wields fiction and non-fiction to give shape to the unseen, to the unsettling, to the grotesque and beautiful alike,” Grandorff said.
Fifteen people attended the event. Participants were primarily faculty members from the Department of English. Free desserts and drinks were provided. Copies of Pulley’s books were made available for purchase.
Natanya Ann Pulley speaks at the Heller Center. Photo by Ava Knox.