Alexie, Sherman, 1966-

Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. Alexie 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). Alexie 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. Alexie's 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.