Seeds of Language Seeds of Stories: Nahat’á (Framework or Guiding Principles)
In partnership with AZ Humanities, Phoenix Indian Center, and the Labriola Center, this session is the second of a four-part creative writing program that is open to storytellers at all levels and to the general public. The four sessions will take place throughout February 2026 with a culminating event held at the Blue Corn Fest on Saturday, March 7, 2026. This is the second workshop session for Seeds of Language, Seeds of Stories, hosted by Manny Loley at Phoenix Indian Center.
About Workshop Session
Building off of ideas discussed in session one, this follow-up session will focus on materials (ex: poems, excerpts from longer works, ancestral stories, family stories, songs, etc.) centering naadą́ą́’ (simply translated as corn), planting, growth, and creativity. We will engage with materials written/created/passed down by other Indigenous writers, thinkers, and elders to deepen our understanding of language and storytelling. What have other people written or said about these concepts? What are some existing frameworks and ways of thinking about these concepts? How is our thinking fitting into this conversation? What are some new ways to approach these ideas? This session will be a practice in honoring pre-existing knowledge while finding our own voice and creating new material. This second meeting will involve discussion, writing exercises, group activities, and sharing.
Materials needed: something to write and take notes with and participants are welcomed to bring in any materials they would like to share that relates to corn/planting/growth.
Dr. Manny Loley is ‘Áshįįhi born for Tó Baazhní’ázhí; his maternal grandparents are the Tódích’íi’nii and his paternal grandparents are the Kinyaa’áanii. He holds a Ph.D. in English and Literary Arts from the University of Denver, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing-Fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Dr. Loley is an inaugural Indigenous Nations Poets Fellow, a founding member of Saad Bee Hózhǫ́: Diné Writers’ Collective, and the editor for Leading the Way: Wisdom of the Navajo People. Since 2018, he has served as director of the Emerging Diné Writers’ Institute. His work has found homes in Poetry Magazine, Pleiades Magazine, the Massachusetts Review, the Santa Fe Literary Review, Broadsided Press, the Arkansas International, The Gift of Animals, Nihikéyah: Navajo Homeland, and the Diné Reader: an Anthology of Navajo Literature, among others. His writing has been thrice nominated for Pushcart Prizes. Dr. Loley is at work on a novel titled They Collect Rain in Their Palms. He is from Tsétah Tó Ák’olí on the Navajo Nation.
