A Special Evening with Award-Winning Author Sherman Alexie (Visit this website)
August 17, 2010 6pm - The Lensic TheatreWho: The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) with support from the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.
What: Award Winning Author, Sherman Alexie: A Reading and Booksigning
Where: The Lensic Performing Arts Center: 211 West San Francisco
When: Tuesday, August 17th. 6:00 p.m.
How Much: $10-$30: Tickets Available at the Lensic Box Office at (505) 988-1234 or The Lensic
(SANTA FE, NM) The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) continues its yearlong celebration of Native Literature by presenting author Sherman Alexie, the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award Winner.
The evening will feature Alexie reading a selection of poetry and prose from his various books, followed by a book signing in the Lensic Theater lobby. Alexie's readings are often irreverent, deeply moving and unforgettable. This is a great opportunity to see and listen to one of the finest and most important writers of his generation, amid the backdrop of the 89th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market.
Sherman Alexie Biography
Sherman J. Alexie, Jr., was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA. In 1985 Alexie went on to attend Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, on scholarship. After two years at Gonzaga, he transferred to Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, WA. Encouraged by poetry teacher Alex Kuo, Alexie excelled at writing. Shortly after graduating WSU with a BA in American Studies, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship in 1991 and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 1992. Not long after receiving his second fellowship, and just one year after he left WSU, his first two poetry collections, The Business of Fancydancing and I Would Steal Horses, were published.
His first collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, was published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1993. For this story collection he received a PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction, and was awarded a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award. In March 2005 Grove Atlantic Press reissued the collection with the addition of two new stories.
Alexie was named one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists and won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award and the Murray Morgan Prize for his first novel, Reservation Blues, published in 1995 by Atlantic Monthly Press. His second novel, Indian Killer, published in 1996, also by Atlantic Monthly Press, was named one of People's Best of Pages and a New York Times Notable Book.
In 1997 Alexie embarked on another artistic collaboration. Chris Eyre, a Cheyenne/Arapaho Indian, discovered Alexie's writing while doing graduate work at New York University's film school. Through a mutual friend, they agreed to collaborate on a film project inspired by Alexie's work. The basis for the screenplay was "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," a short story from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Shadow Catcher Entertainment produced the film. Released as Smoke Signals at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1998, the movie won two awards: the Audience Award and the Filmmakers Trophy.
In 2002 Alexie made his directorial debut with The Business of Fancydancing. Alexie wrote the screenplay based loosely on his first poetry collection. The film was produced and distributed independently, and won numerous film festival awards.
His most recent honors include the 2010 PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction for War Dances; 2009 Swedish Peter Pan Award, 2009 Mason Award, 2009 Odyssey Award for The Absolutely True Diary audio book, produced by Recorded Books, LLC; a 2008 Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award for middle grades and young adults, a Washington Book Award; a 2008 Stranger Genius Award; 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 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 O. Henry Prize Stories 2005.
Alexie's most recent work, War Dances, a collection of stories and poems, was released by Grove Press in October 2009. His most recent poetry collection, Face, was published by Hanging Loose Press in March 2009 and was Small Press Distribution's best selling poetry book of 2009. Four of his books of poetry were among the top five of Small Press Distribution's best selling poetry books for 2000-2009. Alexie is currently working on a documentary, Learning to Drown, as well several new writing projects. He lives in Seattle, WA, with his wife and two sons.