Midge was born to mother Alita Rose and father Herman Lloyd.[3] Midge's mother worked as a civil servant for King County and her father was a teacher.[4] Midge's mother was Lakota Sioux and grew up on a reservation in eastern Montana.[3] Midge's father was raised on a farm in Montana. His family was from Germany, but were originally from Russia near the Valga River.[5]
Midge grew up in the Pacific Northwest. For part of her childhood she lived in Snoqualmie Valley in Washington (state).[4] She has an older half-sister named Julie.[5]
Midge's poetry is noted for its depiction of a self divided by differing identities, and for a strong streak of humor.[8]: 157
In 2002, Finnish composer Seppo Pohjola commissioned Midge's work into a performance called Cedars for a choral ensemble that was produced at Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theater in Seattle.[2][9] In 2015, Cedars was produced by the Mirage Theatre Company at La MaMa in New York City.[10][11] The work is a mixture of poetry and prose set to music. The newer version incorporates work by many Native American writers who in addition to Midge include Alex Jacobs, Arthur Tulee, Deborah A. Miranda, Evan Pritchard, Gail Tremblay, Joseph Bruchac, Martha Brice, Molly McGlennen, and William Michael Paul.[11]
In 2019, Midge published a memoir called Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's from University of Nebraska Press.[3][13]Cleveland Review of Books said the novel's "embrace of grief allows for an expansive range of humor that includes satire, dry wit, Twitter, and inside jokes not here for white consumption."[14]
Midge's poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction has appeared in McSweeney's, The Toast Butter Blog, Waxwing, Moss, Okey-Pankey, Mud City, Apex, The Rumpus, Yellow Medicine Review, The Raven Chronicles, North American Review and World Literature Today, and has been widely anthologized.
2017: Kenyon Review Earthworks Prize for Indigenous Poetry for The Woman Who Married A Bear[19]
1994: Native Writers' Circle of the Americas, Diane Decorah Poetry Award/First Book Awards for Poetry for Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of a Mixed-Up Halfbreed[20]
Personal life
Midge lives in Moscow, Idaho, which she refers to as Nez Perce country, as well as Seattle, Washington.[4]
Selected works and publications
Books
Midge, Tiffany (retold by); Warren, Vic (additional text & book design by); Magnuson, Diana (illustrations by) (1995). Animal Lore & Legend--Buffalo: American Indian Legends. New York: Scholastic. ISBN978-0-590-22489-5. OCLC160081734.
Midge, Tiffany (1996). Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of a Mixed-Up Halfbreed. Greenfield Center, NY: Greenfield Review Press. ISBN978-0-912-67893-1. OCLC35233419.
Midge, Tiffany (Summer 2001). "Sweetheart". Phati'tude. 1 (2 (Indian Summer)). The Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc.: 62. ISBN978-1-453-71992-3.
Midge, Tiffany (2005). Guiding the Stars to Their Campfire, Driving the Salmon to Their Beds: Poems. Everett, WA: Gazoobi Tales. ISBN978-0-967-93644-4. OCLC64202269.
Midge, Tiffany (1996). "Beets". In Trafzer, Clifford E. (ed.). Blue Dawn, Red Earth: New Native American Storytellers. New York: Anchor Books. pp. 267–278. ISBN978-0-385-47952-3. OCLC32893633.
Midge, Tiffany (1997). "Written in blood (Lakota)". In Harjo, Joy; Bird, Gloria (eds.). Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writing of North America. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. p. 212. ISBN978-0-393-31828-9. OCLC40309378.
Midge, Tiffany (Summer 1997). "Fishing at Sandy Point". Studies in American Indian Literatures (SAIL). 9 (2). University of Nebraska Press: 57–58. ISSN0730-3238. JSTOR20739397. OCLC5542768723.
Midge, Tiffany (1998). "A Half-Breed's Dream Vacation". In Gillan, Maria M.; Gillan, Jennifer (eds.). Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American. New York: Viking. pp. 68–75. ISBN978-1-101-64020-3. OCLC607386833.
Midge, Tiffany (1998). Bender, Sheila; Tobin, Philip (eds.). "The Seattle Sister Cities Poetry Anthologies". The Poem & the World: An International Anthology. 4. Seattle, WA: The Poem & the World. ISBN978-0-963-61247-2. OCLC49421582.
Paul-Martin, Michael; Belmore, Florene, eds. (1998). A Shade of Spring: An Anthology of Native Writers. Toronto: 7th Generation Books. ISBN978-1-896-92304-8. OCLC976545620.
Midge, Tiffany (2003). "The Woman Who Married a Bear; Sweetheart; Baskets; First Snow of '96; Promises of Winter; The Night Horse; Chateau Ste. Michelle's". In Akiwenzie-Damm, Kateri (ed.). Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica. Wiarton, Ont.: Kegedonce Press. pp. 37, 43, 66–69, 165. ISBN978-1-877-28397-0. OCLC51838032.
Midge, Tiffany (November–December 2005). "Portrait of a Backwoods Wife with an Axe to Grind". The North American Review. 290 (6). University of Northern Iowa: 19. ISSN0029-2397. JSTOR25127468. OCLC99695727.
Midge, Tiffany (November–December 2009). "A Postcolonial Irony". The North American Review. 294 (6). University of Northern Iowa: 24. ISSN0029-2397. JSTOR40792604. OCLC649200138.
Midge, Tiffany (Fall 2010). "(Dis)Beliefs Suspended". The North American Review. 295 (4). University of Northern Iowa: 24. ISSN0029-2397. JSTOR23055035. OCLC5543819552.
Midge, Tiffany (Fall 2015). "Ranches with Wolves". The North American Review. 300 (4). University of Northern Iowa: 6. ISSN0029-2397. JSTOR44601147. OCLC7973268464.
Midge, Tiffany (2018). "Horns". In Shields, Sharma (ed.). Lilac City Fairy Tales, v. 4: Towers & Dungeons. Spokane, WA: Scablands Books. ISBN978-0-990-75257-8. OCLC1033619956.
Other work
Midge, Tiffany (Winter 1999). Hogan, Linda (ed.). "Review of Indian Cartography by Deborah A. Miranda". Studies in American Indian Literatures (SAIL). 11 (4). University of Nebraska Press: 83–86. ISSN0730-3238. JSTOR20736940. OCLC5542781995.
^ abMidge, Tiffany (1996). "Beets". In Trafzer, Clifford E. (ed.). Blue Dawn, Red Earth: New Native American Storytellers. New York: Anchor Books. pp. 267–278. ISBN978-0-385-47952-3. OCLC32893633.
^Wilson, Norma C. (2005). "Chapter 6 - America's indigenous poetry". In Porter, Joy; Roemer, Kenneth M. (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature. Cambridge University Press. pp. 145–160. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521822831.007. ISBN978-0-521-82283-1. OCLC470047746. Midge entertains with her wit and humor, but also reminds readers of the horrors of contemporary life, which are not spiders or the ghosts of Indians murdered in the late nineteenth century, but rather a hollow consumerism.