Evelina Zuni Lucero

Lucero is known for her novel Night Sky, Morning Star (1999). The book tells the stories of Pueblo artist Cecelia Bluespruce and her extended family, especially her estranged son Jude. Lucero interleaves these chapters with others told by Julian Morningstar James, Jude's father and the Morning Star of the title, who has been unjustly imprisoned for crimes supposedly committed when he was an activist for the American Indian Movement. James’ story has parallels with that of real-life political prisoner Leonard Peltier, and Lucero has stated that “When I gave it thought, a Native prisoner was a fitting characterization of the Indian experience in the Americas." Reviewer Annette van Dyke states that the resemblance between Cecelia and Julian's story and that of the traditional Tiwa story of the deer man - “someone who lures women away from family, friends and proper behavior and then betrays them” – is a central question of the novel, one that is eventually resolved. Van Dyke argues that Lucero is perhaps overly concerned with escaping the shadow of Leslie Marmon Silko and that her novel lacks some of the humor of other recent Native American fiction, but concludes that the novel gives readers “a good glimpse into contemporary Tiwa-speaking Pueblo life.” Stuart Christie argues that, as in Jeannette Armstrong’s novel Slash, Lucero illustrates the power of love as "an important […] anchor linking imprisoned Native North American men and women to their traditions and people outside the prison walls".

Lucero has also published short stories and has worked as a journalist since the 1970s.

Evelina Zuni Lucero (born October 10, 1953) is a Native American (Isleta Pueblo/Ohkay Owingeh) novelist, poet and journalist. Her novel Night Sky, Morning Star won the 1999 First Book Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.