Background of Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie is a Native American author who was born in 1966 in Wellpinit, Washington on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He found a passion for reading after being isolated by his peers who called him "The Globe" due to his enlarged skull. This was the result of his miraculous recovery from surgery after being born with access fluid in his brain. He also attributes his tough early years to giving him a good since of humor.  He states, "You make people laugh and you disarm them. You sort of sneak up on them. You can say controversial or rowdy things and they'll listen or laugh" (Belasco and Johnson 1503). He went to high school in Reardon, Washington and was the only Native American in his class. After graduation he went to Gonzaga University and then transferred after two years to Washington State University. He majored in pre-med but quickly turned his attention to writing after taking a poetry workshop.  Alexie received his degree in American Studies from WSU and then was honored with the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship in 1991 and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 1992. Shortly after this, The New York Times published "The Business of Fancydancing" and reviewed him as, "one of the major lyric voices of our time”(Nelson). After his career launch, he started publishing collections of poetry and short stories relating to the life of Native Americans. He branched out to film and wrote the screenplay to "Smoke Signals", a movie based on his short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”. He also directed the film version of "The Business of Fancy Dancing"  in 2002. "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" was first published in 2002 in the New Yorker and then later in a collection of short stories called "Ten Little Indians". It was admired and placed in both The Best American Short Stories 2004 and in the O, Henry Prize Stories of 2005. Sherman Alexie continues to write and currently lives Seattle, Washington with his two sons and wife. 






The background of Sherman Alexie has been summarized by information found in The Bedford Anthology of American Literature by Susan Belasco and Linck Johnson pages 1502-1504. The links have been provided by www.fallsapart.com and www.newyorker.com. Full documentation is notated in Works Cited.