About the Author

Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie is a poet, filmmaker, and writer. In most of his writing, he uses his own experiences as a Native America. Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation. Determined not to spend the rest of his life on the reservation, Alexie left his school on the reservation to attend a school thirty miles away where he was the only Native American. Alexie reached great success in high school and won a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University.

At Gonzaga University, he attempted different career paths including law and medicine, but they were not for him. Alexie was unhappy with his career path and the pressure to succeed in college, so he began to heavily drink to cope. By 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga University to enroll in Washington State University. At WSU, he finally found enjoyment in literature classes. After having a life changing professor, Alexie started his first collection of poetry called The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems. His work was published in 1992. From the success of his published work, he stopped drinking at the age of 23 and continued to write. Over the years, Sherman Alexie won numerous literary awards for many of his works.

In his everyday life, he lives with his wife and two sons in Seattle. Furthermore, Sherman Alexie has supported many programs to help at-risk Native American youth. In 2005, Alexie founded Longhouse Media, which is a non-profit organization to create cultural expression and social change through media and teaching these skills to Native American youth.

For more information, please check out his website and Wikipedia page.