Kinsale Drake

Kinsale Drake ( , born March 4, 2000) is a Native American poet, playwright, performer, and writer. Drake is Diné and a citizen of the Navajo Nation.

Early life and education Drake was born in Los Angeles, California. They grew up between Los Angeles and (Navajo Mountain). Their work has explored “the intersections of cultural (re)vitalization movements, Indigenous poetics, and Indigenous feminisms.”

Drake has served as a guest faculty member at the Emerging Diné Writers Institute, held at Navajo Technical University.

As of September 2024, they were working toward an MFA at Vanderbilt University.

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.

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. 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.

In 2019, Time named Drake one of "34 People Changing How We See Our World", and in 2021 Yahoo! named them an In the Know Changemaker. They have been featured in Nylon, Time, and Indian Country Today.

Drake is also a playwright and received Yale's Young Native Playwrights Award for their play As It Has Always Been. 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.

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." 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.

Personal life Drake is a member of the Drake family of Navajo Mountain. They often visited their grandmother's farm on the Utah–Arizona border. Drake is related to the late Buck Navajo Sr., described as the last hataałii of Navajo Mountain. Their father is the lawyer John Hueston, who prosecuted Enron executives in the wake of the Enron scandal and has been described as “one of the top trial attorneys in the country.”

Drake uses she/they pronouns.

Influences Drake has named Louise Erdrich and Leslie Marmon Silko as influential figures at the start of their career.

Awards and recognition 2017 National Student Poet 2022 Joy Harjo Poetry Award 2022 Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) Inaugural Fellowship 2023 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Finalist 2023 Adroit Journal Prize for Poetry