Kinsale Drake
Kinsale Drake | |
|---|---|
Drake in 2023 | |
| Born | March 4, 2000 |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Citizenship | Navajo Nation; United States |
| Education | Yale College (BA) |
| Genre | Poetry, fiction |
| Notable awards |
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| Website | |
| kinsaledrake | |
Kinsale Drake (/kɪnˈseɪl/ kin-SAIL,[1] born March 4, 2000) is a Native American poet, playwright, performer, and writer. Drake is Diné and a citizen of the Navajo Nation.[2] In September 2023, Drake was one of five winners of the 2023 National Poetry Series for their debut poetry collection The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket.[3]
Early life and education
Drake was born in Los Angeles, California.[2] They grew up between Los Angeles and Naatsisʼáán (Navajo Mountain).[2]
Drake earned a BA from Yale University in English and in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration.[4] Their work has explored “the intersections of cultural (re)vitalization movements, Indigenous poetics, and Indigenous feminisms.”[5]
Drake has served as a guest faculty member at the Emerging Diné Writers Institute, held at Navajo Technical University.[6]
As of September 2024, they were working toward an MFA at Vanderbilt University.[7]
Work
Writing
Drake's poetry often engages with their Navajo upbringing, family, and culture. They have described poetry as "a way to explore her Navajo culture and her connection to her Indigenous roots," and have said their grandmother has had a major impact on their work as a poet.[8]
Drake has received several awards for their writing. In 2017, they were selected as a National Student Poet representing the West as part of the National Student Poetry Program run by the Library of Congress.[9] While attending Yale, they received the Yale Young Native Storytellers Award for Spoken Word and Storytelling, the Academy of American Poets College Prize, and the J. Edgar Meeker Award.[6]
Their work has appeared in venues including Poetry, Best New Poets, Poets.org, Poetry Northwest, The Slowdown, Black Warrior Review, The Adroit Journal, and Poetry Online.[6][10]
In 2019, Time named Drake one of "34 People Changing How We See Our World",[11] and in 2021 Yahoo! named them an In the Know Changemaker.[12] They have been featured in Nylon,[13] Time,[14] and Indian Country Today.[15]
Drake is also a playwright and received Yale's Young Native Playwrights Award for their play As It Has Always Been.[6]
In November 2025, an anthology that Drake co-edited with Stacie Shannon Denetsosie and Darcie Little Badger was published.[16] Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms includes work from 22 Indigenous writers.
Performance
Drake narrated the audiobook versions of Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe (2020) and A Snake Falls to Earth (2021). They have also worked as a narrator for two Rick Riordan Presents releases: Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (2020) and The Cursed Carnival & other Calamities (2021).
In June 2023, Drake performed poetry at Carnegie Hall in New York.[17]
Indigenous community
Drake founded NDN Girls Book Club, a literary organization that "aims to amplify Indigenous authors, support tribal libraries and bookstores, and encourage reading and writing among Native youth."[18] In 2024, the organization distributed 10,000 books in Hopi Nation and the Navajo Nation, and undertook a similar distribution effort in Southeast Alaska in 2025 with Tlingit and Haida communities.[19][20]
Personal life
Drake is a member of the Drake family of Navajo Mountain.[21] They often visited their grandmother's farm on the Utah–Arizona border.[2] Their family comes from a traditional Navajo cultural background.[2] Their maternal grandfather was Harold Drake Sr., a boarding school survivor who was taken from his family by police during a cultural dance and brought to Tuba City Boarding School.[22] Drake is related to the late Buck Navajo Sr., described as the last hataałii (medicine man) of Navajo Mountain.[23]
Drake uses she/they pronouns.[24]
Influences
Drake has named Louise Erdrich and Leslie Marmon Silko as influential figures at the start of their career.[25]
Awards and recognition
- 2017 National Student Poet[9]
- 2022 Young Native Playwrights Award[26]
- 2022 Joy Harjo Poetry Award[27]
- 2022 Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) Inaugural Fellowship[28]
- 2023 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Finalist[26]
- 2023 Aspen Institute Emerging Writer Fellowship for Poetry[29]
- 2023 Adroit Journal Prize for Poetry[30]
References
- ^ "Kinsale Drake on spotlighting Native American writers". YouTube. May 15, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e "PoetrySnaps! Kinsale Drake: Put on that KTNN". KNAU. April 21, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Announcing the Winners of the 2023 National Poetry Series Competition". National Poetry Series. September 8, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
- ^ "Sound of Under-Water". The Adroit Journal. January 7, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
- ^ "Listening To Native Voices: 15 Native Authors To Read This Year". Cowboys & Indians. November 30, 2022. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Kinsale Drake". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Kinsale Drake - 2024 September Student Spotlight". Graduate School. September 6, 2024. Retrieved January 11, 2026.
- ^ "Kinsale Hueston '22 B.A. uses poetry to explore her Native identity". YaleNews. March 25, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ a b "2017 Class of National Student Poets Announced". Scholastic Corporation. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Kinsale Drake". Poetry Online. Retrieved March 1, 2026.
- ^ "The Art of Optimism". Time. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "In the Know Honors: Kinsale Hueston". IN THE KNOW by Yahoo. November 8, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Kinsale Hueston Talks Activism, Poetry, and What it means to be a Diné Woman". NYLON. August 12, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
- ^ "How Artists of All Ages Keep Their Creative Spirit Alive". Time. February 7, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
- ^ "NDN Girls Book Club promotes Indigenous literature, empowers native girls". ICT News. April 18, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
- ^ "Beyond the Glittering World". Torrey House Press. Retrieved December 19, 2025.
- ^ "NEXT: Kinsale Drake, Founder, NDN Girls Book Club". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "The NDN Girls Book Club: How Kinsale Drake Is Promoting Indigenous Writers". Teen Vogue. February 27, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
- ^ Observer, Alexandra Wittenberg Navajo-Hopi (April 8, 2024). "Pages across the rez: NDN Girls Book Club partners to bring books and more across Navajo and Hopi reservations". Navajo-Hopi Observer. Retrieved January 11, 2026.
- ^ "NDN Girls Book Club Drop Brings More Indigenous Literature to Southeast Alaska Students". Tlingit & Haida. May 28, 2025. Retrieved January 11, 2026.
- ^ "A poet, inspired by her Utah childhood, starts a book club for Indigenous girls". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Harold Drake, Sr". Utah History to Go. June 20, 2002. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "'I need to get on that horse': Last Naatsis'áán hataałii passes on". Navajo Times. December 2022. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Joys of Queerness and the Word: An Indigiqueer Reading". PEN America. June 17, 2022. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Conversations with Kinsale Drake". VoyageLA. July 18, 2022. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ a b "Kinsale Drake". Teen Vogue. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Award Winners". Cutthroat Magazine. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Celebrating and Supporting Indigenous Poetry". Library of Congress. April 20, 2022. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "Announcing the 2023 Emerging Writer Fellows". Aspen Words. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ "The Adroit Prizes for Poetry & Prose - The Adroit Journal". October 14, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2024.