Lance Henson

Lance Henson (born September 20, 1944) is a Cheyenne poet. Henson was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up near Calumet, Oklahoma, where his grandparents raised him in the traditions of the Cheyenne tribe. He has published 50 volumes of poetry, which have been translated into 25 languages. He has been described as the "foremost Cheyenne poet now writing."

Early life Henson was born in Washington, D.C., on September 20, 1944. He grew up near Calumet, Oklahoma, where he was raised by his grandparents who immersed him in the traditions and culture of the Cheyenne tribe. After graduating from high school, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Vietnam War. He later became a member of the Cheyenne Dog Soldier Society, an organization of Cheyenne veterans. He was part of the State Arts Council of Oklahoma's Artist in Residence Program, through which he conducted poetry workshops throughout the state for 10 years.

At the United Nations Indigenous Peoples Conference in Geneva in 1988, Henson represented the Southern Cheyenne. He was a resident at the Millay Colony for the Arts in 1995, and he was awarded a Distinguished Native American Scholars residency at the Smithsonian Institution. Many of his books are published in Italian/English editions.

Plays He has written two plays, "Winter Man," which was performed in New York of Broadway at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and "Coyote Road," which has been performed at Mad River Theater in West Liberty, Ohio, and in Versailles, France.

Style and influences Henson's poems draw upon his Cheyenne heritage, incorporating words from the Cheyenne language, Cheyenne philosophy, and Hanson's own social and political commentary. He writes in a minimalist style with no capitalization, punctuation, rhyme, or meter. Imagery of nature and the seasons figures prominently in Henson's works. His work is influenced Walt Whitman, N. Scott Momaday, Carl Jung, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mark Twain. Robert Berner also notes references to haiku, Li Po, and Tu Fu in his works.