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ACCLAIMED NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST AND AUTHOR LEE H. MARMON TAKES TOP HONORS IN REGIONAL BOOK AWARDS COMPETITION.

WILL JOIN NOVELIST DAUGHTER LESLIE MARMON SILKO FOR JOINT AWARD CEREMONY IN DENVER

(New Albany, Ohio -- January 7, 2005) -- It will be a proud moment of honor and recognition for the entire Native American community when two longstanding icons of U.S. western regional culture make a rare joint public appearance in Denver this spring.

Acclaimed Native American photographer and author Lee H. Marmon and his daughter, famed novelist Leslie Marmon Silko, will share the stage when they receive simultaneous literary awards from the prestigious Mountains and Plains Booksellers' Association.

The joint recognition ceremony is tentatively set for Friday, April 1, 2005 at the Denver Marriott Hotel in Denver, Colorado.

"This is truly an honor," a beaming Lee Marmon, 79, said from his home in Laguna, New Mexico.

"It's a profound privilege for our family, for the Laguna people, and for the entire Native American community for Leslie and me to be jointly recognized this way. I have tremendous respect for the Mountains and Plains Booksellers' Association. After 55 years as a professional photographer, this will be a singularly proud and memorable moment for me, both as an artist, and as a father."

Marmon's acclaimed 2003 book, "The Pueblo Imagination" was voted best Art book of the year in the MPBA's 2005 Regional Book Awards Contest. It also took a First Place Award from Independent Publisher Online in 2004.

Marmon's 159 page book is a groundbreaking, multi-dimensional showcase of Native American culture, talent, and history. It features a collection of Marmon's best-known tribal photographs and landscape images, dating back to 1949. Collectively, they chronicle the last generation of the Laguna and Acoma tribes to live by their traditional ways and values. The images are lovingly interwoven with native poetry and prose by Leslie Marmon Silko, poet Joy Harjo, and poet Simon Ortiz, all of whom co-authored the book with Mr. Marmon.

The MPBA will honor Ms. Silko with its "Spirit of the West" Literary Achievement Award. This award is a lifetime achievement award, designed to recognize the collective body of poetry and literature she has produced over her remarkable career. Leslie Marmon Silko is the author of such novels as "Ceremony" (1988), "Storyteller" (1989), "Almanac of the Dead" (1992), "Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit" (1997), and "Gardens in the Dunes" (1999). She grew up in Laguna, New Mexico, and currently resides in Tucson, Arizona.

Mr. Marmon's award ranks him among other notable names in literature. Previous winners of the MPBA's Regional Book Award include New York Times Bestselling author William Least Heat Moon ("Blue Highways"), Stephen Ambrose, Debra Magpie Earling ("Perma Red"), Judy Blunt ("Breaking Clean"), and Win Blevins ("Stone Song").

Previous winners of the MPBA's Spirit of the West Award include Tony Hillerman ('Skeleton Man"), N. Scott Momaday ("House Made of Dawn"), and Sandra Cisneros ("The House on Mango Street," "Caramelo").

Lee Marmon was born on the Laguna reservation in New Mexico in 1925, and has lived there for most of his life. He bought his first camera at the age of 25, and made an early practice of shooting portrait images of the aging senior members of his Laguna tribe, and neighboring tribes. His collection of thousands of black and white images have since become a national historical and cultural treasure, as they comprise a rare visual chronicle of the last generation of Native Americans to live by their traditional ways and values.

His best known photograph, "White Man's Moccasins," (1954) has been reproduced and published worldwide.

From the late 1960's to the early 1980's. Mr. Marmon lived and worked in California, where he served as official photographer for the Bob Hope Desert Classic. His images have appeared in various national publications, including The New York Times and Time Magazine. In 1992, he won an ADDY Award for contributing to the Peabody Award-Winning PBS-TV documentary, "Surviving Columbus".

At the age of 79, Mr. Marmon is still working as a professional photographer. At his studio in Laguna New Mexico, he personally develops and signs black-and-white enlargement prints from their original negatives for the pleasure of historians, art collectors, and western culture devotees worldwide.

A gallery of Mr. Marmon's best-known images and full bio can be found at his publicist-sponsored website: www.leemarmongallery.com

The Mountains and Plains Booksellers' Association (MPBA) is a non-profit association formed over 40 years ago. Its primary purpose is to support independent bookstores, and to raise awareness of the value of independent businesses in our communities. The Regional Book Awards were instituted in 1990. Their website is at www.mountainsplains.org.

Image Management Associates is an independent public relations and business communications consulting firm based in New Albany, Ohio. IMA develops communication and public relations solutions for small to medium-sized businesses and professional practitioners, including legal and medical professionals, artists and entertainers, media figures, and organizations. For more information, visit their website at www.image-manage.com.

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