Without Reservations: An Urban Indian’s Comic, Poetic and Highly Irreverent Look at the World

Thursday, November 12
11 a.m., Clara Thompson Hall

Sherman Alexie is an author, comedian, poet and artist who isn’t afraid to speak his mind, even if it means going toe-to-toe with Steven Colbert on The Colbert Report. A Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian, he grew up on the reservation in Wellpinit, Wash., about 50 miles northwest of Spokane, Wash. Alexie’s 2007 novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, reflects a bit of his own experience of attending public high school off the reservation.

Alexie achieved early success shortly after graduating from Washington State University. He received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship in 1991 and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 1992.

His first collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, was published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1993. The story This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona, became the basis for the screenplay of Smoke Signals, an independent film that won two Sundance Film Festival awards in 1998.

In April 2009, Hanging Loose Press released his first full collection of poems in nine years, Face. His newest book, War Dances, is a hilarious collection of stories, which is being released this October 2009. His many honors include a 2008 Stranger Genius Award in Literature, a 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, a 2007 Western Literature Association Distinguished Achievement Award, a 2005 Pushcart Prize and a 2001 PEN/Malamud Award from PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

Learn more: www.fallsapart.com