A Radiant Curve

[1] A Radiant Curve is a work with basis in daily life, which is closely related to Luci Tapahonso's Navajo culture.

These stories include memories of her family, generational teachings, and her perspective as a Navajo person living in modern times.

[2] A Radiant Curve tries to emphasize storytelling in order to speak to the commonality of the shared human experience across cultures as evidenced by the double use of both Navajo and English.

[4] A Radiant Curve is the sixty-fourth part of a collection of over eighty books in a series called SunTracks, first published in 1971.

[8] In 2006, Tapahonso received the Native Writers Circle of the Americas’ Lifetime Achievement Award[8] and the same organization named her 1999 Storyteller of the Year.

[7] She began her education as a journalist and investigative writer, but switched her major and graduated with an MA in creative writing.

The poem begins with a description of how “the first Holy Ones talk and sang as always” and that they “created light, night, and day.” [4] Likewise, the third poem illustrates "the world created by the Holy People” and the creation of “Diné language, ceremonies, history, and beliefs.”[4] The Earth Mother is especially revered by the Navajo and neighboring tribes.

[13] In her prose piece "A Radiant Curve" and in her poem “Old Salt Woman” Tapahonso writes about the First Laugh ceremony, which is a child's first important milestone in Navajo culture.

[16] In many Native American cultures, women are viewed as the source of life and were often seen as the creators of the universe in creation stories.

This ceremony, as it is retold in A Radiant Curve, is said to have first been performed for one of the first Holy People to have human form and the baby of First Man and First Woman, known as White Shell Girl.

In addition to the salt, White Shell Girl gave out gifts of herbs, corn, and small clay toys.

[25] White Shell Girl would eventually grow up to become Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé), a deity who created the ancestors of the modern Navajo people.

[27] The short stories and poems in A Radiant Curve, often contain lessons on morals, identity, and tradition in Navajo society.

A central theme of A Radiant Curve is to educate the reader of the Navajo perspective through storytelling so they might learn from the experiences of generations before them.

[citation needed] In traditional Native American history, oral stories were used by the elders as a form of education for the next generation.

[28] In order to help more people understand the Navajo culture, the stories needed to be told in this medium, and written in English.