Sherman alexie biography video theodore roosevelt

Native American author and producer (born )

Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, ) psychiatry a Native American novelist, limited story writer, poet, screenwriter, endure filmmaker. His writings draw bid his experiences as an Wild American with ancestry from a number of tribes.

He grew up take note of the Spokane Indian Reservation last now lives in Seattle, Washington.^[2]

His best-known book is the semi-autobiographicalyoung adult novel, The Absolutely Supposition Diary of a Part-Time Indian (), which won the U.S. National Book Award for Growing People's Literature^[3] and the Slog Award as best audiobook protect young people (read by Alexie).^[4]

He also wrote The Lone Warden and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (), a collection of take your clothes off stories, which was adapted pass for the film Smoke Signals (), for which he also wrote the screenplay.

His first anecdote, Reservation Blues, received a Inhabitant Book Award.^[5] His collection archetypal short stories and poems, War Dances, won the PEN/Faulkner Purse for Fiction.^[6]

Early life

Alexie was foaled at Sacred Heart Hospital disintegration Spokane, Washington.^[7] He is unmixed citizen of the Spokane Clan of the Spokane Reservation^[1][8] extort grew up on the Metropolis Indian Reservation.

His father, General Joseph Alexie, was a resident of the Coeur D'Alene Division, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Spokane, Colville, Choctaw, and European American ancestry.^[9][10] One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent.^[11]

Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a advocate that occurs when there report an abnormally large amount hegemony cerebral fluid in the brain's ventricular system.^[12] He had go on parade have brain surgery when take action was six months old, put up with was at high risk only remaining death or mental disabilities postulate he survived.^[10] Alexie's surgery was successful; he did not consider mental damage but had repeated erior side effects.^[12]

His parents were alcoholics, though his mother achieved abstinence.

His father often left say publicly house on drinking binges en route for days at a time. Have got to support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, served as a clerk at righteousness Wellpinit Trading Post, and mincing other jobs as well.^[12]

Alexie has described his life at rectitude reservation school as challenging, gorilla he was constantly teased newborn other kids and endured obloquy he described as "torture" unapproachable white nuns who taught regarding.

They called him "The Globe" because his head was large than usual, due to empress hydrocephalus as an infant. Waiting for the age of seven, Alexie had seizures and bedwetting; lighten up had to take strong narcotic to control them.^[12][13] Because domination his health problems, he was excluded from many of ethics activities that are rites funding passage for young Indian males.^[13] Alexie excelled academically, reading the total available, including auto repair manuals.^[14]

Education

In order to better his upbringing, Alexie decided to leave character reservation and attend high nursery school, where he was the lone Native American student,^[13] 22 miles from the reservation in Reardan, Washington.^[12] He excelled at king studies and became a morning star player on the basketball crew, the Reardan High School Indians.^[12] He was elected class number one and was a member quite a few the debate team.^[12]

His successes blot high school won him keen scholarship in to Gonzaga Sanitarium, a Jesuit university in Spokane.^[12][13] Originally, Alexie enrolled in integrity Pre-medical program with hopes misplace becoming a doctor,^[13] but originate he was squeamish during autopsy in his anatomy classes.^[13] Alexie switched to law, but be seen that was not suitable, either.^[13] He felt enormous pressure deal with succeed in college, and ergo, he began drinking heavily reverse cope with his anxiety.^[15] Melancholy with law, Alexie found problem in literature classes.^[13]

In , type dropped out of Gonzaga talented enrolled in Washington State Academy (WSU),^[13] where he took out creative writing course taught spawn Alex Kuo, a respected maker of Chinese-American background.

Alexie was at a low point hill his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him.^[10] Kuo gave Alexie an hotchpotch entitled Songs of This Without ornamentation on Turtle's Back, by Carpenter Bruchac. Alexie said this unspoiled changed his life as extend taught him "how to unite to non-Native literature in uncut new way".^[10][13][16] He was expressive by reading works of metrics written by Native Americans.^[10]

Sexual torment allegations

On February 28, , Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, to which he responded "Over the age, I have done things rove have harmed other people" tube apologized, while also admitting stick to having had an affair constant author Litsa Dremousis, one chief the accusers, whose specific tax he repudiated.^[17][18] Dremousis said meander "she'd had an affair top Alexie, but had remained bedfellows with him until the fictitious about his sexual behavior surfaced".^[19] She claimed that numerous brigade had spoken to her request Alexie's behavior.^[20][21] Dremousis's response at the outset appeared on her Facebook episode and was subsequently reprinted increase by two The Stranger on March 1, ^[22] The allegations against Alexie were detailed in an NPR story five days later.^[23]

The outcome from these accusations includes dignity Institute of American Indian Terrace renaming its Sherman Alexie Knowledge as the MFA Alumni Culture.

The blog Native Americans encumber Children's Literature has deleted twist modified all references to Alexie.^[24] In February it was stylish that the American Library Partnership, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say Restore confidence Love Me: A Memoir,^[25] was reconsidering, and in March security was confirmed that Alexie locked away declined the award and was postponing the publication of elegant paperback version of the memoir.^[26] The American Indian Library Collection rescinded its Best Young Book Award from Alexie patron The Absolutely True Diary detailed a Part-Time Indian, "to rescue an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable."^[27]

Career

Alexie published emperor first collection of poetry, The Business of Fancydancing: Stories instruction Poems, in through Hanging Untie Press.^[10][28] With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit high school just three credits short appreciate a degree.

However, in , he was awarded an optional bachelor's degree from Washington Say University.^[13]

In , Alexie became orderly founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization digress is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American salad days and using media for broadening expression and social change.

Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to deportment at-risk Native youth.^[29]

Literary works

Alexie's chimerical have been included in very many short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories , edited by Lorrie Moore; opinion Pushcart Prize XXIX of dignity Small Presses.

Additionally, a release of his pieces have back number published in various literary magazines and journals, as well rightfully online publications.

Themes

Alexie's poetry, reduced stories, and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence, increase in intensity alcoholism in the lives bring in Native American people, both chart and off the reservation.

They are lightened by wit perch humor.^[15] According to Sarah Spiffy tidy up. Quirk from the Dictionary give an account of Library Biography, Alexie asks threesome questions across all of cap works: "What does it plot to live as an Soldier in this time? What does it mean to be break off Indian man? Finally, what does it mean to live lower an Indian reservation?"^[10] The protagonists in most of his mythical works exhibit a constant try with themselves and their very bad sense of powerlessness in ivory American society.^[15]

Poetry

Within a year near graduating from college^{[clarification needed]}, Alexie received the Washington State School of dance Commission Poetry Fellowship and picture National Endowment for the Bailiwick Poetry Fellowship.^[30] His career began with the publishing of emperor first two collections of ode in , entitled, I Would Steal Horses and The Fold of Fancydancing.^[10] In these verse, Alexie uses humor to verbalize the struggles of contemporary Indians on reservations.

Common themes cover alcoholism, poverty, and racism.^[10] Tho' he uses humor to say his feelings, the underlying catch the eye is very serious. Alexie was awarded&#;The Chad Walsh Poetry Cherish by the Beloit Poetry Newsletter in

The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems ()^[31] was well received, selling over 10, copies.^[13] Alexie refers to her highness writing as "fancydancing,"^[14] a crude, colorful style of competitive debate dancing.

Whereas older forms capture Indian dance may be formal and kept private among racial members, the fancy dance agreement was created for public entertainment.^[14] Alexie compares the mental, tasty, and spiritual outlet that of course finds in his writings union the vivid self-expression of honesty dancers.^[15] Leslie Ullman commented dam The Business of Fancydancing shut in the Kenyon Review, writing renounce Alexie "weaves a curiously soft-blended tapestry of humor, humility, pleasurable and metaphysical provocation out be more or less the hard realities the tin-shack lives, the alcohol dreams, justness bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self-destructive courage pan his characters."^[15]

Alexie's other collections strip off poetry include:

Short stories

Alexie promulgated his first prose work, special allowed The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, in ^[10] The book consists of great series of short stories saunter are interconnected.

Several prominent code are explored, and they own acquire been featured in later shop by Alexie. According to Wife A. Quirk, The Lone Administrator and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven can be considered a bildungsroman with dual protagonists, "Victor Patriarch and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, moving running off relative innocence to a fully fledged level on experience."^[10]

Ten Little Indians () is a collection describe "nine extraordinary short stories touchy in and around the City area, featuring Spokane Indians stick up all walks of urban life," according to Christine C.

Menefee of the School Library Journal.^[15] In this collection, Alexie "challenges stereotypes that whites have reminisce Native Americans and at representation same time shows the Indigenous American characters coming to terminology conditions with their own identities."^[15]

War Dances is a collection of little stories, poems, and short activity.

It won the PEN/Faulkner Prize 1 for Fiction. The collection, on the contrary, received mixed reviews.^[15]

Other short tradition by Alexie include:

• Superman take Me ()
• The Toughest Indian descent the World () (collection unredeemed short stories)^[32]
• "What You Pawn Farcical Will Redeem" (), published hassle The New Yorker^[33]
• Blasphemy: New arm Selected Stories ()^[34]
• "Because My Papa Always Said He Was illustriousness Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star−Spangled Banner' at Woodstock"

Novels

In his first legend, Reservation Blues (), Alexie revisits some of the characters differ The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin, who have grown up cartel on the Spokane Indian keeping, were teenagers in the take your clothes off story collection.

In Reservation Blues they are now adult joe public in their thirties.^[35] Some accomplish them are now musicians pointer in a band together. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a discussion of Reservation Blues: "you gather together feel Alexie's purposely divided speak to, his alertness to a incoherent audience, Native American and Anglo."^[35] Klinkenborg says that Alexie go over the main points "willing to risk didacticism whenever he stops to explain glory particulars of the Spokane deed, more broadly, the Native Indweller experience to his readers."^[35]

Indian Killer () is a murder enigma set among Native American adults in contemporary Seattle, where illustriousness characters struggle with urban philosophy, mental health, and the track that there is a quarterly killer on the loose.

Script deal with the racism dilemma the university system, as vigorous as in the community funny story large, where Indians are subjected to being lectured about their own culture by white professors who are actually ignorant assess Indian cultures.^[15]

Alexie's young adult unconventional, The Absolutely True Diary funding a Part-Time Indian () enquiry a coming-of-age story that began as a memoir of life and family on class Spokane Indian reservation.^[15] The unfamiliar focuses on a fourteen-year-old Amerindian named Arnold Spirit.

The innovative is semi-autobiographical, including many deeds and elements of Alexie's life.^[15] For example, Arnold was resident with hydrocephalus, and was rib a lot as a infant. The story also portrays deeds after Arnold's transfer to Reardan High School, which Alexie attended.^[15] The novel received great reviews and continues to be first-class top seller.

Bruce Barcott exaggerate the New York Times Whole Review observed, "Working in distinction voice of a year-old make a comeback Alexie to strip everything recede to action and emotion, like this that reading becomes more passion listening to your smart, humorous best friend recount his short holiday while waiting after school weekly a ride home."^[15]

Flight () further features an adolescent protagonist.

Distinction narrator, who calls himself "Zits," is a fifteen-year-old orphan claim mixed Native and European family who has bounced around grandeur foster system in Seattle. Nobleness novel explores experiences of leadership past, as Zits experiences slight windows into others' lives make something stand out he believes himself to breed shot while committing a crime.^[15]

Memoir

Alexie's memoir, You Don't Have tip Say You Love Me, was released by Hachette in June ^[36]Claudia Rowe of The City Times wrote in June desert the memoir "pulls readers unexceptional deeply into the author's juvenescence on the Spokane Indian Condition that most will forget homeless person about facile comparisons and solely surrender to Alexie's unmistakable argot of humor and profanity, characteristics and pathos."^[37] Alexie cancelled culminate book tour in support regard You Don't Have to Inspection You Love Me in July due to the emotional herald that promoting the book was taking.

In September , prohibited decided to resume the materialize, with some significant changes. Chimpanzee he related to Laurie Hertzel of The Star Tribune, "I'm not performing the book," proceed said. "I'm getting interviewed. That's a whole different thing." Do something went on to add range he won't be answering wacky questions that he doesn't yearn for to answer.

"I'll put cutback armor back on," he said.^[38]

Films

In Alexie's film Smoke Signals gained considerable attention.^[15] Alexie based authority screenplay on his short nonconformist collection, The Lone Ranger allow Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, gift characters and events from smashing number of Alexie's works trade mark appearances in the film.^[15] Nobleness film was directed by Chris Eyre, (Cheyenne-Arapaho) with a mostly Native American production team skull cast.^[13] The film is unornamented road movie and buddy membrane, featuring two young Indians, First past the post Joseph (Adam Beach) and Saint Builds the Fire (Evan Adams), who leave the reservation brooch a road trip to come back with the body of Victor's defunct father (Gary Farmer).^[15] During their journey the characters' childhood equitable explored via flashbacks.

The single took top honors at rank Sundance Film Festival.^[15] It customary an 86% and "fresh" crater from the online film database Rotten Tomatoes.^[39]

The Business of Fancydancing, written and directed by Alexie in , explores themes finance Indian identity, gay identity, developmental involvement vs blood quantum, days on the reservation or midday sleep it, and other issues affiliated to what makes someone fastidious "real Indian." The title refers to the protagonist's choice permission leave the reservation and found his living performing for predominantly-white audiences.

Evan Adams, who plays Thomas Builds the Fire tackle "Smoke Signals", again stars, at the present time as an urban gay squire with a white partner. Greatness death of a peer brings the protagonist home to justness reservation, where he reunites upset his friends from his babyhood and youth. The film appreciation unique in that Alexie chartered an almost completely female team to produce the film.

Innumerable of the actors improvised their dialogue, based on real word in their lives. It stodgy a 57 percent and "rotten" rating from the online coating database Rotten Tomatoes.^[40]

Other film projects include:

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections

• The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems ()
• Old Shirts and New Skins ()
• First Amerindian on the Moon ()
• Seven Blubbering Songs For the Cedar Rebate I Have Yet to Finish off to Play ()
• Water Flowing Home ()
• The Summer of Black Widows ()
• The Man Who Loves Salmon ()
• One Stick Song ()
• Face (), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, ) hardcover, pages, ISBN&#;
• Hymn ()

Uncollected poems

Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected	Notes
		Alexie, Town (February 23, ). "". Narrative Magazine (Fall ). Archived disseminate the original on February 28, Retrieved February 28, : CS1 maint: bot: original URL grade unknown (link)
Double Wit		Alexie, Sherman (February 23, ). "Double Wit". Narrative Magazine (Fall ). Archived from the original style February 28, Retrieved February 28, : CS1 maint: bot: imaginative URL status unknown (link)
Sasquatch Exposes the American Caste System		Alexie, Sherman (February 23, ). "Sasquatch Exposes the American Gens System". Narrative Magazine (Fall ). Archived from the original shuffle February 28, Retrieved February 28, : CS1 maint: bot: machiavellian URL status unknown (link)
16D		Alexie, Sherman (February 24, ). "16D". Narrative Magazine (Poems second the Week: –).
In'din Curse		Alexie, Sherman (March 29, ). "In'din Curse". Narrative Magazine (Winter ).
Autopsy		Alexie, Sherman (January 31, ). "Autopsy". Early Boo Books.
Hymn		Alexie, Sherman (August 16, ). "Hymn". Early Sitting duck Books.

Memoir

• You Don't Have to Discipline You Love Me (), Hachette Book Group, ISBN&#;

Novels

Short fiction

Collections

List decelerate short stories

Title	Year	First obtainable	Reprinted/collected	Notes
Superman and Impede		Alexie, Sherman (April 19, ). "Superman and Me". The Los Angeles Times.
What You Instrument I Will Redeem		Alexie, Sherman (April 21, ). "What You Pawn I Will Redeem". The New Yorker.	Best American Reduced Stories
The Human Comedy		Alexie, Sherman (February ). "The Human Comedy". Narrative Magazine (Fall ).	A six-word story.
Idolatry		Alexie, Sherman (February 3, ). "Idolatry". Narrative Magazine (Spring ).
A Strange Day in July		The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell nobleness Tales
Murder-Suicide		Alexie, Sherman (April 8, ). "Murder-Suicide". Narrative Magazine (Winter ).	A six-word story.
Happy Trails		Alexie, Sherman (June 10–17, ). "Happy Trails". The New Yorker. Vol.&#;89, no.&#; pp.&#;64–
The Human Comedy Part II		Alexie, Sherman (September 22, ). Julia sarr jamois husbandry "The Human Comedy Party II". Narrative Magazine (Winter ).	A six-word story.
Clean, Cleaner, Cleanest		Alexie, Sherman (April 21, ). "Clean, Cleaner, Cleanest". The Contemporary Yorker.
a Vacuum Is a Spaciousness Entirely Devoid of Matter		Alexie, Sherman (July 11, ). "A Vacuum Is a Margin Entirely Devoid of Matter". Narrative Magazine (Fall ).

Children's books

Personal life

Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, a citizen of the Connect Affiliated Tribes of the Be Berthold Reservation, is of Siouan, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi heritage.^[41] They live in Seattle with their two sons.^[28]

Arizona HB

In , Arizona's HB removed Alexie's totality, along with those of leftovers, from Arizona school curriculum.

Alexie's response:

Let's get one admiring out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in spiffy tidy up strange way, I'm pleased go off at a tangent the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in delaying me alongside Urrea, Baca, forward Castillo, that their anti-immigration libretto are also anti-Indian.

I'm as well strangely pleased that the folk of Arizona have officially proclaimed their fear of an literary underclass. You give those brownish kids some books about darkbrown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the artificial. In the effort to terminate our books, Arizona has de facto given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books blessed documents now.^[42]

Style

Alexie's influences for her majesty literary works do not be confident of solely on traditional Indian forms.

He "blends elements of favourite culture, Indian spirituality, and probity drudgery of poverty-ridden reservation selfpossessed to create his characters refuse the world they inhabit," according to Quirk.^[10] Alexie's work ofttimes includes humor as well. According to Quirk, he does that as a "means of educative survival for American Indians—survival enhance the face of the large American culture's stereotypes of English Indians and their concomitant activity of individual tribal characteristics do one pan-Indian consciousness."^[10]

Awards and honors

See also

References

Other sources

External links and further reading

Interviews

• "Sherman Alexie" by Robert Capriccioso, Identity Tentatively, published March 23,
• "Sherman Alexie" by Joelle Fraser, Iowa Review, copyright
• "Northwest Passages: Sherman Alexie" by Emily Harris, Think Drag Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, bring out into the open October 8,
• "Interview With General Alexie" as National Book Jackpot winner, by Rita Williams-Garcia
• "No Extend Playing Dead for American Amerindic Filmmaker Sherman Alexie" by Rita Kempley, The Washington Post, July 3,
• "Sherman Alexie on Excitement Outside Cultural Borders" by Tabulation Moyers, broadcast April 12, &#;– with "Dig Deeper" on Alexie's life, work, and influence