Sherman Alexie Popular Books

Sherman Alexie Biography & Facts

Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.His best-known book is the semi-autobiographical young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), which 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).He also wrote The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a collection of short stories, which was adapted as the film Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay. His first novel, Reservation Blues, received a 1996 American Book Award. His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Early life Alexie was born at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. He is a citizen of the Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation and grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a citizen of the Coeur D'Alene Tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, who was Spokane and also of Colville, Choctaw, and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent.Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the brain's ventricular system. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he did not experience mental damage but had other side effects.His parents were alcoholics, though his mother achieved sobriety. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post, and had some other jobs.Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging, as he was constantly teased by other kids and endured abuse he described as "torture" from white nuns who taught there. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to his hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie had seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals. Education In order to better his education, Alexie decided to leave the reservation and attend high school in Reardan, Washington., 22 miles from the reservation, and where Alexie was the only Native American student. He excelled at his studies and became a star player on the basketball team, the Reardan High School Indians. He was elected class president and was a member of the debate team.His successes in high school won him a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University, a Jesuit university in Spokane. Originally, Alexie enrolled in the Pre-medical program with hopes of becoming a doctor, but found he was squeamish during dissection in his anatomy classes. Alexie switched to law, but found that was not suitable, either. He felt enormous pressure to succeed in college, and consequently, he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxiety. Unhappy with law, Alexie found comfort in literature classes.In 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga and enrolled in Washington State University (WSU), where he took a creative writing course taught by Alex Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese-American background. Alexie was at a low point in his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him. Kuo gave Alexie an anthology entitled Songs of This Earth on Turtle's Back, by Joseph Bruchac. Alexie said this book changed his life as it taught him "how to connect to non-Native literature in a new way". He was inspired by reading works of poetry written by Native Americans. Sexual harassment allegations On February 28, 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, including author Litsa Dremousis, with whom he alleged having a consensual affair in the past and who claimed numerous women had spoken to her about Alexie's behavior. Alexie admitted he had "harmed" other people besides Dremousis. Dremousis's response initially appeared on her Facebook page and was subsequently reprinted in The Stranger on March 1, 2018. The allegations against Alexie were detailed in an NPR story five days later. NPR corroborated the sexual harassment allegations of three other women. The fallout from these accusations includes the Institute of American Indian Arts renaming its Sherman Alexie Scholarship as the MFA Alumni Scholarship. The blog Native Americans in Children's Literature has deleted or modified all references to Alexie. In February 2018 it was reported that the American Library Association, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, was reconsidering, and in March it was confirmed that Alexie had declined the award and was postponing the publication of a paperback version of the memoir. The American Indian Library Association rescinded its 2008 Best Young Adult Book Award from Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, "to send an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable." Career Alexie published his first collection of poetry, The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems, in 1992 through Hanging Loose Press. With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit school just three credits short of a degree. However, in 1995, he was awarded an honorary bachelor's degree from Washington State University.In 2005, Alexie became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to supporting at-risk Native youth. Literary works Alexie's stories have been included in several short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore; and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications. Themes Alexie's poetry, short stories, and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence, and alcoholism in the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. They are lightened by wit and humor. According to Sarah A. Quirk from the Dictionary of Library Biography, Alexie asks three questions across all of his works: "What does it mean to live as an Indian in th.... Discover the Sherman Alexie popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Sherman Alexie books.

Best Seller Sherman Alexie Books of 2024

  • Thunder Boy Jr. synopsis, comments

    Thunder Boy Jr.

    Sherman Alexie & Yuyi Morales

    From New York Times bestselling author Sherman Alexie and Caldecott Honor winning Yuyi Morales comes a striking and beautifully illustrated picture book celebrating the special rel...

  • The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013 synopsis, comments

    The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013

    Dave Eggers

    Dave Eggers and his students at the 826 Valencia and 826 Michigan writing labs compile fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics, as well as categorydefying gems that have ...

  • Poems for America synopsis, comments

    Poems for America

    Carmela Ciuraru

    An inspiring anthology that celebrates our nation with more than one hundred of the greatest poems ever written about the landscapes, institutions, and transforming events of Ameri...

  • Fig synopsis, comments

    Fig

    Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

    An NPR Best Book of 2015Love and sacrifice intertwine in this brilliant debut of rare beauty about a girl dealing with her mother’s schizophrenia and her own mental illness.Fig’s w...

  • Cheesus Was Here synopsis, comments

    Cheesus Was Here

    J. C. Davis

    Sixteenyearold Delaney Delgado knows miracles aren’t realif they were, her kid sister wouldn’t be dead. So when the image of baby Jesus appears on a Babybel cheese wheel, she’s not...

  • The Best American Poetry 2012 synopsis, comments

    The Best American Poetry 2012

    David Lehman & Mark Doty

    Mark Doty brings the vitality and imagination that illuminate his own work to his selections for the twentyfifth volume in the Best American Poetry series. He has chosen poems of h...

  • The Best American Poetry 2013 synopsis, comments

    The Best American Poetry 2013

    David Lehman

    Beloved and inventive poet Denise Duhamel selects the poems for the 2013 edition of The Best American Poetry, “a ‘best’ anthology that really lives up to its title” (Chicago Tribun...

  • Tasha synopsis, comments

    Tasha

    Brian Morton

    A Washington Post Best Nonfiction Book of the YearIn the spirit of Fierce Attachments and The End of Your Life Book Club, acclaimed novelist Brian Morton delivers a “superb” (Maure...

  • The Madonnas of Echo Park synopsis, comments

    The Madonnas of Echo Park

    Brando Skyhorse

    Reminiscent of Sherman Alexie and Sandra Cisneros, acclaimed author Brando Skyhorse’s “engaging storytelling” (Vanity Fair) brings the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles to life...

  • The Best American Poetry 2015 synopsis, comments

    The Best American Poetry 2015

    David Lehman

    The premier anthology of contemporary American poetry continues with an exceptional volume edited by awardwinning novelist and poet Sherman Alexie, now with a new essay by Alexie o...