September 29 — Hear Sherman Alexie, one of the country’s great writers
Calling Sherman Alexie the foremost Native American writer is damning with faint praise. Novelist, essayist, poet, screenwriter, he is at the top of anyone’s game. And maybe he’ll explain why basketball is so important to Native Americans as well as Hoosiers.
When: Monday September 29, 7:30-9:30 PM
Where: Atherton Union Reilly Room Butler University
Part of Butler’s Vivian Delbrook Visiting Writer’s Series
Why does Provocate think you should attend this event?
He really is a great writer. For a flavor of Alexie’s perception among writers, this is from his bio:
His most recent honors include the 2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children’s Literature in Fiction and the 2007 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature, both for his young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Other awards and honors include the 2007 Western Literature Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award and the 2003 Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award, Washington State University’s highest honor for alumni. His work was selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore, and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. His short story “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” was selected by juror Ann Patchett as her favorite story for the The O. Henry Prize Stories 2005. He holds honorary degrees from Seattle University (doctor of humanities, honoris causa - 2000) and Columbia College, Chicago (1999). Alexie’s most recent publications are Flight, released in April 2007 by Grove / Atlantic, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, his first young adult novel, published in September 2007 by Little, Brown. Little, Brown will release his second young adult novel, Radioactive Long Songs, in April 2009.
If you think this sounds interesting, be sure to check out …
Diane Glancy, coming to UIndy October 1, is another great poet of Native American roots. The social dislocations and traumas Alexie illuminates in his fiction were part of the reality that Wilma Mankiller had to address when she was first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, and they’ll be discussed at the conference about Native American education on November 14. You also may gain some insight into the literary tradition that Alexie preserves with a night of Native American storytelling November 15.
And for your listening pleasure …
Like most great writers of his generation, Alexie is deeply shaped by rock & roll. The internal soundtrack of his novels is expressed best by the great Jim Boyd, Alexie’s collaborator on film and music projects.
