Jake Skeets

Jake Skeets is Black Streak Wood, born for Waters Edge. He is Diné from Vanderwagen, New Mexico, and holds an MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. 

Skeets is the author of Horses (Milkweed Editions, 2026), which was named one of Literary Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026, and Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers (Milkweed Editions, 2019), selected by Kathy Fagan for the 2018 National Poetry Series. The book was also a recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. 

Skeets’s other honors include a 92Y Discovery Prize, a Projecting All Voices Fellowship through Arizona State University and the Mellon Foundation, an American Book Award, and a 2020 Whiting Award.

Skeets was the 2023–24 Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. He served as Guest Editor of Poem-a-Day in November 2022. He is currently serving as the third Navajo Nation poet laureate and teaches in the MFA program at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.