M.L.Smoker author page

M.L. Smoker biography

M.L. Smoker is an Assiniboine and Sioux poet and educator from the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. She is known for her poetry and her work in Native American education. Smoker earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Montana. Her poetry collection, Another Attempt at Rescue, was published by Hanging Loose Press in 2005.

Smoker has contributed to several anthologies and literary journals, including Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas and New Poets of the American West. She has also co-edited the anthology I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights. In addition to her writing, Smoker has served as the Director of Indian Education for the state of Montana, where she worked to improve educational opportunities for Native students.

In 2019, M.L. Smoker was named Montana’s co-Poet Laureate, a position she shares with Melissa Kwasny.