Kim Shuck is a Cherokee Nation poet, author, weaver, and bead work artist who draws from Southeastern Native American culture and tradition as well as contemporary urban Indian life. She was born in San Francisco, California and belongs to the northern California Cherokee diaspora. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and also has Sac and Fox and Polish ancestry. She earned a B.A. in art (1994), and M.F.A. in Textiles (1998) from San Francisco State University. Her basket weaving work is influenced by her grandmother Etta Mae Rowe and the long history of California Native American basket making.
Kim does service on many boards, most recently as the interim President for the Cherokee Society of the Greater Bay Area, a satellite community of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
She has taught American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University and was an artist in residence at the de Young Museum in June 2010 with Michael Horse.
On June 21, 2017, Mayor Ed Lee named Shuck as the 7th poet laureate of San Francisco.
Awards
2026 Alliance for Felix Cove Fellow
2022 COSTO Medal from University of California Riverside
2019 National Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets
2007 Oakland Out Loud, (Ed.) anthology, co-editor, Jukebox Press ISBN0932693172
2006 Words Upon the Waters, (Ed.) anthology, assistant editor, Jukebox Press 2006
2020 The City is Already Speaking Volume 4. Editorial team Kim Shuck, Denise Sullivan,San Francisco Plum Blossoms
2019 TheCity is Already Speaking Volume 3, Editorial team Denise Sullivan, Thea Matthews, and Kim Shuck, San Francisco, Dishtowels
2018 The City is Already Speaking Volume 2, editorial team Denise Sullivan, Thea Matthews, and Kim Shuck, San Francisco,
GRANTS:
2025 San Francisco Artist Grant, 2025/2026
2022 Creative Work Fund Grant
2021 Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission, 2021
