A 1958 magna cum laude graduate of the university majoring in English and French, Marilou Awiakta has received international recognition for her writing, which blends her Cherokee and Appalachian heritage with science. A quote from her third book, Selu: Seeking the Cornmother’s Wisdom, is engraved in the River Wall of the Bicentennial Mall in Nashville; “Motheroot,” a poem from Selu, is lined in marble along one border of the new Fine Arts Walkway at the University of California, Riverside; and the audiotape of Selu was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award. In 1985 the US Information Agency chose her books Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet and Rising Fawn and the Fire Mystery for the global tour of their exhibit, Women in the Contemporary World.