1. December 17, 2007
University of Utah, Department of English
Attn: Graduate Studies Assistant
255 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 3500
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0494
Letter of Recommendation for Christine Allen-Yazzie
Christine Allen-Yazzie was a student of mine at the University of Utah sometime between 1995
and 1999. I was a member of the examination of committee for her MFA thesis “There’s Death in the
Balloon”. I have no records of the course that she took with me but that information and her grade can
be discerned from her transcript. Even a cursory examination of her accomplishments over the past
decade reveals that Ms. Allen-Yazzie is eminently qualified for advanced graduate study.
Already an author of numerous published pieces of fiction and poetry and a recipient of many
awards, Ms. Allen-Yazzie is also the recipient of the first-place novel prize and a $5000 publication prize
from the Utah Arts Council for her recently published first novel The Arc and the Sediment. This novel is
a sharp and precise work and I am enjoying it immensely. What strikes me about Christine’s prose is
how practical and concrete it is. She has also developed a considerable talent in the past decade as a
cultural diplomat of race and gender, a role that she has woven into the fabric of her artistic and
intellectual being. A simple but profoundly bold introduction that she gave at a recent reading of her
work at BYU states her purpose well: “Disclosing the obscured structures of power inherent in
oppression is a way to understand and overcome the disparities created by colonialist relationships
between dominant and minority cultures.” The subsequent description that she gives of empathy and
the role that it plays in culture and fiction is a model of expository grace and courage. In that
description she makes a connection between empathy in fiction and the term cultural interfacing from
communications and technical writing that strikes me as a characteristic example of her lucid and
pragmatic approach. This seamless integration of her professional and creative intelligence is how I see
Ms. Allen-Yazzie excelling as a doctoral student and later as a professor.
She is right when she asserts that she is a strong candidate because of her experiences in both
the professional and creative spheres. In the professional world she is a successful entrepreneur who
has started her own company and has worked in a multitude of capacities in editing, technical writing,
information development and instructional design. Her artist’s resume nonetheless chronicles a steady
stream of published creative output. She is the rare combination of an ambitious and productive
professional who can translating her substantial and serious aesthetic and political imagination into
concrete works. People like this know what they want in life and do not waste their time in pursuing it.
Ms. Allen-Yazzie wants to teach at the university level and research and write on American literature
and literary theory. Her greatest ambition is “to learn and to teach in a rigorous, challenging academic
environment” and knows of herself that “my development as a creative writer relies on my immersion in
literature and literary theory”. I cannot agree more with the insight of this latter statement.
My sense is that she is on the verge of bold new developments in her ideas and practice. She is
profoundly aware of cultural contexts in a way that is utterly unsentimental and thus rich in soul and
power. This sensitivity is both pleasing as a prose style and rewarding as an intellectual method. As a
literary critic she is contextual, political and activist and yet does not surrender a moment’s loss of touch

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with her artistic center of gravity. The protagonist of her recent novel is lost only in formal terms of plot
and geography; as a character, Gretta Bitsilly is a perfectly grounded artistic creation of great thematic
depth and complexity. Her next project, a book on Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were
Watching God, also exudes a deep artistic confidence. When she points out that few critics of Hurston
are wiling to “imagine an author who might write as a process of discovery rather than authority,” I do
not think that she is simply making a critical point based on her own insights as a creative writer.
What I see in her career to date is a concerted effort to understand how the human engagement
with difference can facilitate an understanding of the relationship between aesthetic yearning and
cultural purpose. I do not know if in the end she will end up writing a book on only one novel but I know
right now that the books will get done. One can base one’s confidence in this simply on the consistency
and quality of her output to date. If graduate study were an ethos and not simply an institution, Ms.
Allen-Yazzie would be a doctorial student already:
A woman ahead of her times, Hurston seemed to anticipate post-structuralism and
deconstruction long before structuralism had even seen its peak, drawing attention to the limits
of determinist structural and linguistic models, despite her immersion in cultural anthropology,
which foregrounded structuralism.
What other kind of human being writes this way? The last phrase dangles and needs to be removed for
the sake of the sentence but the thought surely needs to be continued for the sake of the project. This
is my point: the project that needs to be thought through is already a substantial accomplishment. It is
already a serious and calculated endeavor of the heart and mind as valid as any that a graduate program
can support. In many respects, Christine Allen-Yazzie, is an ideal example of a mid-career Ph.D.
applicant. Successful, productive, focused, accomplished, I consider your program lucky to have the
opportunity to incorporate this kind of experienced energy, skill, and imagination. I hope that your
program is bold and grounded in its conception of the contemporary purpose of the graduate study and
is capable of seeing its interest in this truly exceptional candidate.
Sincerely,
Tomo Hattori
Visiting Assistant Professor