OCTOBER 7, 1966

SPOKANE/COUER D’ALENE POET SHERMAN ALEXIE BORN

Alexie, born on the Spokane Indian Reserve, Washington (WA), was an avid reader. A high school honor student & class president, Sherman graduated from WA State University in 1991. His works include: I Would Steal Horses (poetry, 1992); The Business of Fancydancing (prose &poetry, 1992); First Indian on the Moon and Old Shirts & New Skins (poetry, 1993); The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (fiction, 1993–PEN/Hemingway Award); Reservation Blues (novel, 1995); The Summer of Black Widows (poetry, 1996); Indian Killer (suspense, 1996); The Toughest Indian in the World (short stories, 2000–PEN/Malamud Award); The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007– National Book Award–Young People’s Literature); Flight (2007); and War Dances (prose & poetry, 2010–PEN/Faulkner Award). He received a Lifetime Achievement Award, Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. In 2018, Alexie apologized for incidents of sexual harassment that led to the rescinding of other awards.

Source: Kathleen Kuiper, “Sherman Alexie,” Britannica, 10/3/2023.  Retrieved 11/27/2023, Sherman Alexie | Biography, Books, Indian Education, Superman and Me, & Facts | Britannica
Photo:  ASU Department of English, 4/22/2016. Permissive use.