In February 1974, Silko took a break from writing Ceremony to assume the role of a visiting writer at a middle school in Bethel, Alaska. It was during this time Silko penned the early work on her witchery poetry featured in Ceremony, wherein she asserts that all things European were created by the words of an anonymous Tribal witch. This writing plays a formidable role in the novel's theme of healing. An expanded version of this work is featured in Storyteller. The poetic works found in Ceremony were inspired by the Laguna oral tradition and the work of poet James Wright, with whom Silko developed a friendship after they met at a writer's conference at Grand Valley State University in June 1974, and years of written correspondence. These letters would be featured in the work The Delicacy and Strength of Lace edited by Ann Wright, wife of James Wright, and published in November 1985 after the poet's death. Silko completed the manuscript to Ceremony in July 1975 shortly before returning to New Mexico. Ceremony was published in March, 1977. Reception Ceremony has been well received by readers, and received significant attention from academics, scholars, and critics. It is widely taught in university courses, as part of American Indian studies, American studies, history, religious studies, and literature courses. Poet Simon J. Ortiz has lauded Ceremony as a "special and most complete example of affirmation and what it means in terms of Indian resistance." Denise Cummings, Critical Media & Cultural Studies professor at Rollins College, has described Ceremony as a novel which "immediately challenges readers with a new epistemological orientation while altering previously established understandings of the relationship between reader and text." Silko received the American Book Award for Ceremony in 1980. Influence on Indigenous writers Ceremony is considered to be a key publication in what is known as the Native American Renaissance. This renaissance is a term coined by American literary critic Kenneth Lincoln in his book by the same title and describes the significant increase in fictional literary works published by Native American authors in the United States since the late 1960s. Published in 1977, Silko's Ceremony was influential in providing a historical perspective of the Laguna Pueblo and the consequences of World War II on indigenous people who served in the United States military. Ceremony is thought to be part of the First Wave of contemporary American Indian literature,