Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a poet, writer, and filmmaker. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a Native American with ancestry of several tribes, growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington.Some of his best known works are The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a book of short stories, and Smoke Signals (1998), a film of his screenplay based on that collection.His first novel, Reservation Blues, received one of the fifteen 1996 American Book Awards.His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie). His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
When an Indian tribe gets a casino, they've officially declared that they've lost the war. It's the final submission.
2
I don't believe in magic, but I do believe in interpreting coincidence exactly the way you want. I woke up after a tremendous bender, and the acceptance for my first book of poems was in the mailbox. For me, it was a call to get sober.
3
Every reading I do, there's always some big Indian guy in the back row staring daggers at me. One guy in Montana said, 'You're a genius. You figured out what white people wanted, and you wrote it'. Yeah, that's exactly what I thought back in 1987. What's going to make me really economically successful? Poems about Indian guys. I'm a capitalistic genius.
4
When you're colonized, you end up exploiting your own spirituality. You're subject to so many negative stereotypes, you embrace the positive ones. Non-Indians love us in that way. They think we're all priests and healers. After generations of being reviled and dehumanized, to be thought of as magical is pretty seductive.
5
I've spent very little time on my reservation in the last twenty years. Personally,there's too much pain.I actually think I'm more traditional as a writing nomad than people who never leave the reservation.
6
[in his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian] Gordie, the white boy genius, gave me this book by a Russian dude named Tolstoy, who wrote, 'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Well, I hate to argue with a Russian genius, but Tolstoy didn't know Indians, and he didn't know that all Indian families are unhappy for the same exact reasons: the frikkin' booze.
7
[when asked if he thought that his portraying Indians as likely to have alcohol problems in his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian played into stereotypes about Indians] Stereotypes? It's not a stereotype. Stereotype implies that it's not real, and it's absolutely real. On my reservation, in my family, alcoholism was epidemic. When you're talking about aunts, uncles, cousins; there are three of us, currently, who don't drink actively, out of hundreds of people. So anybody who thinks it's a stereotype, alcoholism among Native Americans, is a romantic fool.
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Fact
1
Won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his first young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
2
His short story, The Toughest Indian in the World, appeared in The New Yorker Magazine's "The Future of American Fiction" issue (June 21 & 28, 1999)
3
Prefers the term "Indian," to "Native American"
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Jimmy P.
2013
verses from poem "Tribal Ceremony"
49?
2003
Documentary short writer
The Business of Fancydancing
2002
written by
Smoke Signals
1998
book "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" / screenplay
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Winter in the Blood
2013
associate producer
Gesture Down/I Don't Sing
2006
Short producer
Smoke Signals
1998
co-producer
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
Wanderlust
2006
TV Movie documentary writer: "John Wayne's Teeth"
Smoke Signals
1998
lyrics: "Treaties" 1995, "John Wayne's Teeth", "Reservation Blues" 1995, "Father and Farther" 1995, "A Million Miles Away"
Director
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Business of Fancydancing
2002
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Daily Show
2016
TV Series
Himself
Página 2
2014
TV Series
Himself
Moyers & Company
2013
TV Series
Himself
Sonicsgate
2009
Documentary
Himself - Writer
The Colbert Report
2008
TV Series
Himself
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
2007
TV Series
Himself
Tavis Smiley
2007
TV Series
Himself
One World
2001
Documentary
Himself
Won Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
2003
Honorable Mention
ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival
Best Dramatic Feature
The Business of Fancydancing (2002)
2002
Jury Award
Durango Film Festival
Best Narrative Feature Film
The Business of Fancydancing (2002)
2002
Grand Jury Award
L.A. Outfest
Outstanding Screenwriting
The Business of Fancydancing (2002)
2002
Audience Award
Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Best Feature
The Business of Fancydancing (2002)
2002
Audience Award
San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Best Feature
The Business of Fancydancing (2002)
2002
Audience Favourite
Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival, Canada
$600,000
