Kim Shuck

Kim Shuck is a Cherokee Nation poet, author, weaver, and bead work artist who draws from Southeastern Native American culture and tradition as well as contemporary urban Indian life. She was born in San Francisco, California and belongs to the northern California Cherokee diaspora. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and also has Sac and Fox and Polish ancestry. She earned a B.A. in art, and M.F.A. in Textiles (1998) from San Francisco State University. Her basket weaving work is influenced by her grandmother Etta Mae Rowe and the long history of California Native American basket making.

On June 21, 2017, Mayor Ed Lee named Shuck as the 7th poet laureate of San Francisco.

Awards 2022 COSTO Medal from University of California Riverside 2019 National Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets 2019 PEN Oakland Censorship Award 2008 KQED Local Hero Award, American Indian Heritage Month 2007 Smuggling Cherokee, Poetry Foundation bestseller list (March) 2006 Smuggling Cherokee, SPD Books bestseller list (March) 2005 Mentor of the Year Award Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers 2005 Native Writers of the Americas First Book, Diane Decorah Award 2004 Mary Tallmountain Award

Grants 2025/2026 San Francisco Artist Grant 2022 Creative Work Fund Grant 2021 Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission