An Evening with Sherman Alexie

Description

Sherman Alexie’s stature as a writer of stories, poetry, and novels has soared over the course of his twenty-book, twenty-year career. His wide-ranging, acclaimed fiction throughout the last two decades, from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven to his most recent PEN/Faulkner Award–winning War Dances, have established him as a star in contemporary American literature.

A bold and irreverent observer of life among Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, the daring, versatile, funny, and outrageous Alexie show¬cases his many talents in Blasphemy, where he unites fifteen beloved classics with fifteen new stories in one sweeping anthology for devoted fans and first-time readers. Included here are some of his most esteemed tales, including “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” in which a homeless Indian man quests to win back a family heirloom; “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” a road-trip morality tale; “The Toughest Indian in the World,” about a night shared between a writer and a hitchhiker; and his most recent, “War Dances,” about a man grappling with sudden hearing loss in the wake of his father’s death. Alexie’s new stories are fresh and quintessential, about donkey basket¬ball leagues, lethal wind turbines, a twenty-four hour Asian manicure salon, good and bad marriages, and all species of warriors in America today.

An indispensable Alexie collection, Blasphemy reminds us, on every thrill¬ing page, why he is one of our greatest contemporary writers and a true master of the short story.

"Few writers grab you by the emotional throat quicker than Sherman Alexie, and he doesn't let go until the end." -- Jim Lenfestey, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

"...mischievously and mordantly funny, scathingly forthright, deeply and universally compassionate, and wholly magnetizing." -- Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)


Sherman J. Alexie, Jr., was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane. Approximately 1,100 Spokane Tribal members live there. Alexie's father is a Coeur d'Alene Indian, and his mother is a Spokane Indian. A marvelously illuminating biography can be read here.

Sherman’s previous books include The Business of Fancydancing, I Would Steal Horses, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Reservation Blues, Indian Killer, and The Toughest Indian in the World. He collaborated with Jim Boyd on the album Reservation Blues; his short story “This is What it Means to Say, Phoenix, Arizona” was released as the award-winning film Smoke Signals. His The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian won not only a National Book Award but the hearts of thousands of young readers across the country. Alexie has been the World Heavyweight Poetry Bout Champion numerous times.

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