Novelist, poet, story teller and screenwriter …

Sherman Alexie was born on this date in 1966. Alexie’s father is a Coeur d’Alene Indian and his mother is a Spokane Indian

The Writer’s Almanac has quite a bit about Alexie concluding with:

His first big success was his collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993). It was one of the first works of fiction to portray Indians as modern Americans who watch all the same TV programs and eat the same breakfast cereal as everybody else. He has since written about Indians who are gay intellectuals, basketball players, middle-class journalists, elderly movie extras, rock musicians, construction workers, or reservation girls whose cars only go in reverse because all the other gears are broken. His most recent is the story collection Ten Little Indians, which came out last year.

Sherman Alexie said, “All too often, Indian writers write about the kind of Indian they wish they were. So I try to write about the kind of Indian I am. I’m just as much a product of ‘The Brady Bunch’ as I am of my grandmother.”

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven was adapted for the excellent and amusing film Smoke Signals.