Bio: Sherman Alexie

Updated: August 31, 2007 - 5:45 PM

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BIO IN BRIEF SHERMAN ALEXIE

Family: Born Oct. 7, 1966, in Spokane, Wash., to Sherman Joseph (Coeur d'Alene) and Lillian Agnes (Spokane) Alexie, and raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit. Lives in Seattle with his wife, Diane, and two sons, ages 6 and 10.

Education: Gonzaga University, Spokane, 1985-87; Washington State University, B.A., 1991.

Awards: 1993 PEN/Hemingway, 1994 Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest, 2001 PEN/Malamud, 2004 Pushcart Prize.

What he can't stomach: Indian poseurs, Indiophiles, Indiophobes, President Bush, the term Native American (because it can mean "anyone born in America"), Crocs worn outside the garden.

What he loves: Family, his mother's quilts, shooting hoops, oversized superhero comic books from his childhood, Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," Dungeons & Dragons, tortilla chips and salsa.

RÉSUMÉ SHERMAN ALEXIE

Selected publications: "I Would Steal Horses" (poems, 1992); "The Business of Fancydancing" (poems and stories, 1992); "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" (stories, 1993); "Reservation Blues" (novel, 1994); "Indian Killer" (novel, 1996); "One Stick Song" (poetry, 2000); "Ten Little Indians" (stories, 2003); "Flight" (2007); "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" (young-adult novel with illustrations by Ellen Forney, 2007).

Films: "Smoke Signals" (1998), "The Business of Fancydancing" (2003).

On the Web: See more at Alexie's website at www.fallsapart.com.

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Man of many tribes

Wednesday March 23, 2011

Two back-to-back works of fiction reveal a Sherman Alexie mellowed and tempered by fatherhood, memories of his own childhood and the events of Sept. 11, 2001.