Sherman Alexie - Wikipedia Sherman Alexie Sherman Alexie Alexie at the Texas Book Festival in 2008 Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. ( 1966 - 10 - 07 ) October 7, 1966 ( age 51 ) Wellpinit, Washington, U.S. Occupation Author, poet, screenwriter, filmmaker Nationality Spokane Coeur d'Alene American Genre Native American literature, humor, documentary fiction Literary movement Indigenous Nationalism Notable works The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian Smoke Signals Reservation Blues The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven War Dances Notable awards American Book Award National Book Award 2007 PEN / Faulkner Website fallsapart.com Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. ( born October 7, 1966 ) is a Spokane - Coeur d'Alene - American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington. His best - known book is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven ( 1993 ), a collection of short stories. It was adapted as the film Smoke Signals ( 1998 ), for which he also wrote the screenplay. His first novel Reservation Blues received one of the fifteen 1996 American Book Awards. His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian ( 2007 ), is a semi-autobiographical novel that 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 ). His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction. Alexie is the guest editor of the 2015 Best American Poetry. Contents 1 Life 1.1 Childhood 1.2 Education 1.3 Today 2 Sexual harassment 3 Literary works 3.1 Themes 3.2 Influences 3.3 Arizona HB 2281 3.4 Poetry 3.5 Short stories 3.6 Novels 3.7 Memoir 3.8 Films 4 Bibliography 4.1 Poetry 4.1. 1 Collections 4.1. 2 Uncollected Poems 4.2 Memoir 4.3 Novels 4.4 Short fiction 4.4. 1 Collections 4.4. 2 List of short stories 5 Awards and honors 6 See also 7 References 8 External links and further reading Life Childhood Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a little child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great - grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie 's surgery was successful ; he suffered no mental damage but had other side effects. His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie 's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post and had some other jobs. Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids as well as endured abuse he described as `` torture '' from teachers who were white nuns. They called him `` The Globe '' because his head was larger than usual, due to the hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting ; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals. Education In order to better his education, Alexie decided to leave the reservation and attend high school in Reardan, Washington. The school was twenty - two miles off the reservation and Alexie was the only Native American student. He excelled at his studies and became a star player on the basketball team, the Reardan High School Indians. He was elected as class president and participated as a member of the debate team. His successes in high school won him a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University, a Roman Catholic university in Spokane. Originally, Alexie enrolled in the pre-med program with hopes of becoming a doctor, but found he was squeamish during dissection in his anatomy classes. Alexie switched to law, but found that was not suitable, either. He felt enormous pressure to succeed in college, and consequently, he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxiety. Unhappy with law, Alexie found comfort in literature classes. In 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga and enrolled at Washington State University ( WSU ), where he took a creative writing course taught by Alex Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese - American background. Alexie was at a low point in his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him. Kuo gave Alexie an anthology entitled Songs of This Earth on Turtle 's Back, by Joseph Bruchac. Alexie said this book changed his life as it taught him `` how to connect to non-Native literature in a new way ''. He was inspired by reading works of poetry written by Native Americans. With his new appreciation of poetry, Alexie started working on what was published as his first collection, The Business of Fancydancing : Stories and Poems, published in 1992 through Hanging Loose Press. With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit school just three credits short of a degree. However, in 1995, he was awarded a bachelor 's degree from Washington State University. Today In 2005, Alexie became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to supporting at - risk Native youth. Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Hidatsa, Ho - Chunk and Potawatomi heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons. Sexual harassment On February 28, 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, including author Litsa Dremousis with whom he 'd had a consensual affair in the past and who claimed numerous women had spoken to her about Alexie 's behavior. Ms. Dremousis ' response initially appeared on her Facebook page and was subsequently reprinted in The Stranger for March 1, 2018. The fallout from these accusations includes the Institute of American Indian Arts renaming its Sherman Alexie Scholarship as the MFA Alumni Scholarship. The blog Native Americans in Children 's Literature has deleted or modified all references to Alexie. In February 2018 it was reported that the American Library Association, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Do n't Have to Say You Love Me : A Memoir, was reconsidering, and in March it was confirmed that Alexie had declined the award and was postponing the publication of a paperback version of the memoir The American Indian Library Association rescinded its 2008 Best Young Adult Book Award from Mr. Alexie for The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian sending the message that his actions are unacceptable. Literary works Alexie 's stories have been included in several short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore ; and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications. Themes Alexie 's poetry, short stories and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence and alcoholism among the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. They are lightened by wit and humor. According to Sarah A. Quirk from the Dictionary of Library Biography, Alexie asks three questions across all of his works : `` What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time ? What does it mean to be an Indian man ? Finally, what does it mean to live on an Indian reservation ? '' The protagonists in most of his literary works exhibit a constant struggle with themselves and their own sense of powerlessness in white American society. Influences Alexie 's writings are meant to evoke sadness, but at the same time, he uses humor and pop culture that leave the readers with a sense of respect, understanding, and compassion. Alexie 's influences for his literary works do not rely solely on traditional Indian forms. He `` blends elements of popular culture, Indian spirituality, and the drudgery of poverty - ridden reservation life to create his characters and the world they inhabit, '' according to Quirk. Alexie 's work is laced with often startling humor. According to Quirk, he does this as a `` means of cultural survival for American Indians -- survival in the face of the larger American culture 's stereotypes of American Indians and their concomitant distillation of individual tribal characteristics into one pan-Indian consciousness. '' Arizona HB 2281 In 2012, Arizona 's HB 2281 removed Alexie 's works, along with those of others, from Arizona school curriculum. Alexie 's response : Let 's get one thing out of the way : Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I 'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I 'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens ? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now. Poetry Within a year of graduating from college, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. His career began with the publishing of his first two collections of poetry in 1992, entitled, I Would Steal Horses and The Business of Fancydancing. In these poems, Alexie uses humor to express the struggles of contemporary Indians on reservations. Common themes include alcoholism, poverty and racism. Although he uses humor to express his feelings, the underlying message is very serious. The Business of Fancydancing : Stories and Poems ( 1992 ) was well received, selling over 10,000 copies. Alexie refers to his writing as `` fancydancing, '' a flashy, colorful style of competitive Pow wow dancing. Whereas older, traditional forms of Indian dance may be ceremonial and kept private among tribal members, the fancydance style was created by Native American veterans from World War II as a form of public entertainment. Alexie compares the mental, emotional, and spiritual outlet that he finds in his writings to the vivid self - expression of the dancers. Leslie Ullman commented on The Business of Fancydancing in the Kenyon Review, writing that Alexie `` weaves a curiously soft - blended tapestry of humor, humility, pride and metaphysical provocation out of the hard realities... : the tin - shack lives, the alcohol dreams, the bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self - destructive courage of his characters. '' Alexie 's other collections of poetry include : The Business of Fancydancing : Stories and Poems ( 1992 ) Old Shirts and New Skins ( 1993 ) First Indian on the Moon ( 1993 ) Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play ( 1994 ) Water Flowing Home ( 1996 ) The Summer of Black Widows ( 1996 ) The Man Who Loves Salmon ( 1998 ) One Stick Song ( 2000 ) Face ( 2009 ), Hanging Loose Press ( April 15, 2009 ) hardcover, 160 pages, ISBN 978 - 1 - 931236 - 71 - 3 Short stories Alexie published his first prose work, entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, in 1993. The book consists of a series of short stories that are interconnected. Several prominent characters are explored, and they have been featured in later works by Alexie. According to Sarah A. Quirk, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven can be considered a bildungsroman with dual protagonists, `` Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds - the - Fire, moving from relative innocence to a mature level on experience. '' Ten Little Indians ( 2004 ) is a collection of `` nine extraordinary short stories set in and around the Seattle area, featuring Spokane Indians from all walks of urban life, '' according to Christine C. Menefee of the School Library Journal. In this collection, Alexie `` challenges stereotypes that whites have of Native Americans and at the same time shows the Native American characters coming to terms with their own identities. '' War Dances is a collection of short stories, poems, and short works. It won the 2010 PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction. The collection, however, received mixed reviews. Other short stories by Alexie include : Superman and Me ( 1997 ) The Toughest Indian in the World ( 2000 ) ( collection of short stories ) `` What You Pawn I Will Redeem '' ( 2003 ), published in The New Yorker ( 1 ) Blasphemy : New and Selected Stories ( 2012 ) `` Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ' The Star − Spangled Banner ' at Woodstock '' Novels In his first novel, Reservation Blues ( 1995 ), Alexie revisits some of the characters from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thomas Builds - the - Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin, who have grown up together on the Spokane Indian reservation, were teenagers in the short story collection. In Reservation Blues they are now adult men in their thirties. Some of them are now musicians and in a band together. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1995 review of Reservation Blues : `` you can feel Alexie 's purposely divided attention, his alertness to a divided audience, Native American and Anglo. '' Klinkenborg says that Alexie is `` willing to risk didacticism whenever he stops to explain the particulars of the Spokane and, more broadly, the Native American experience to his readers. '' Indian Killer ( 1996 ) is a murder mystery set among Native American adults in contemporary Seattle, where the characters struggle with urban life, mental health, and the knowledge that there is a serial killer on the loose. Characters deal with the racism in the University system, as well as in the community at large, where Indians are subjected to being lectured about their own culture by white professors who are actually ignorant of Indian cultures. Alexie 's young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian ( 2007 ) is a coming - of - age story that began as a memoir of his life and family on the Spokane Indian reservation. The novel focuses on a fourteen - year - old Indian named Arnold Spirit. The novel is semi-autobiographical, including many events and elements of Alexie 's life. For example, Arnold was born with hydrocephalus, and was teased a lot as a child. The story also portrays events after Arnold 's transfer to Reardan High School, which Alexie attended. The novel received great reviews and continues to be a top seller. Bruce Barcott from the New York Times Book Review observed, `` Working in the voice of a 14 - year - old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home. '' Flight ( 2007 ) also features an adolescent protagonist. The narrator, who calls himself `` Zits, '' is a fifteen - year - old orphan of mixed Native and European ancestry who has bounced around the foster system in Seattle. The novel centers around experiences of the past, as Zits experiences short windows into others ' lives after he is shot while committing a crime. Memoir Alexie 's memoir, You Do n't Have to Say You Love Me, was released by Hachette in June 2017. Claudia Rowe of The Seattle Times wrote in June 2017 that the memoir `` pulls readers so deeply into the author 's youth on the Spokane Indian Reservation that most will forget all about facile comparisons and simply surrender to Alexie 's unmistakable patois of humor and profanity, history and pathos. '' Alexie cancelled his book tour in support of You Do n't Have to Say You Love Me in July 2017 due to the emotional toll that promoting the book was taking. In September 2017, he decided to resume the tour, with some significant changes. As he related to Laurie Hertzel of The Star Tribune, `` I 'm not performing the book, '' he said. `` I 'm getting interviewed. That 's a whole different thing. '' He went on to add that he wo n't be answering any questions that he does n't want to answer. `` I 'll put my armor back on, '' he said. Films In 1998 Alexie broke barriers by creating the first all - Indian movie, Smoke Signals. Alexie based the screenplay on his short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and characters and events from a number of Alexie 's works make appearances in the film. Smoke Signals was directed by Chris Eyre, a Cheyenne - Arapaho Indian filmmaker, and the entire production team and cast is Native American. The film tells the story of two young Indians, Victor Joseph ( Adam Beach ) and Thomas Builds the Fire ( Evan Adams ), who leave the reservation on a road trip to retrieve the body of Victor 's dead father ( Gary Farmer ). During their journey the characters ' childhood is explored via flashbacks. The film took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. It received an 86 % and `` fresh '' rating from the online film database Rotten Tomatoes. The Business of Fancydancing, written and directed by Alexie in 2002, explores themes of Indian identity, cultural involvement vs blood quantum, living on the reservation or off it, and other issues around makes someone a `` real Indian. '' The title refers to the protagonist 's choice to leave the reservation and make his living performing for predominantly - white audiences. Evan Adams, who plays Thomas Builds the Fire in `` Smoke Signals '', again stars, now as an urban gay man with a white partner. The death of a peer brings the protagonist home to the reservation, where he reunites with his friends from his childhood and youth. The film is unique in that Alexie hired an almost completely female crew to produce the film. Many of the actors improvised their dialogue, based on real events in their lives. Other film projects include : 49 ? ( writer, 2003 ) The Exiles ( presenter, 2008 ) Sonicsgate ( participant, 2009 ) Bibliography This list is incomplete ; you can help by expanding it. Poetry Collections The Business of Fancydancing : Stories and Poems ( 1992 ) Old Shirts and New Skins ( 1993 ) First Indian on the Moon ( 1993 ) Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play ( 1994 ) Water Flowing Home ( 1996 ) The Summer of Black Widows ( 1996 ) The Man Who Loves Salmon ( 1998 ) One Stick Song ( 2000 ) Face ( 2009 ), Hanging Loose Press ( April 15, 2009 ) hardcover, 160 pages, ISBN 978 - 1 - 931236 - 71 - 3 Hymn ( 2017 ) https://earlybirdbooks.com/hymn-a-new-poem-by-sherman-alexie Uncollected Poems Title Year First published Reprinted / collected Notes Autopsy 2017 Alexie, Sherman ( January 31, 2017 ). `` Autopsy ''. Early Bird Books. Hymn 2017 Alexie, Sherman ( August 16, 2017 ). `` Hymn ''. Early Bird Books. Memoir You Do n't Have to Say You Love Me ( 2017 ), Hachette Book Group, ISBN 9780316396776. Novels Reservation Blues ( 1995 ) Indian Killer ( 1996 ) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian ( 2007 ) Flight ( 2007 ) Short Fiction Collections The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven ( 1993 ) The Toughest Indian in the World ( 2000 ) Ten Little Indians ( 2004 ) War Dances ( 2009 ) Blasphemy : New and Selected Stories ( 2012 ) List of short stories Title Year First published Reprinted / collected Notes Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ' The Star - Spangled Banner ' at Woodstock 1993 Superman and Me What You Pawn I Will Redeem 2003 Alexie, Sherman ( April 21, 2003 ). `` What You Pawn I Will Redeem ''. The New Yorker. Happy Trails 2013 Alexie, Sherman ( June 10 -- 17, 2013 ). `` Happy Trails ''. The New Yorker. 89 ( 17 ) : 64 -- 65. Clean, Cleaner, Cleanest 2017 Alexie, Sherman ( April 21, 2003 ). `` Clean, Cleaner, Cleanest ''. The New Yorker. Awards and honors National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship 1993 PEN / Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction for the story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Lila Wallace - Reader 's Digest Writers ' Award American Book Award ( Before Columbus Foundation ) for Reservation Blues Granta Magazine : Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40 New York Times Notable Book for Indian Killer People Magazine : Best of Pages 1999 The New Yorker : 20 Writers for the 21st Century PEN / Malamud Award 2007 National Book Award, Young People 's Literature, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian 2009 American Library Association Odyssey Award as the year 's `` best audiobook for children or young adults '', read by Alexie ( Frederick, MD : Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, ISBN 1 - 4361 - 2490 - 5 ) PEN / Faulkner Award for War Dances Native Writers ' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award Puterbaugh Award ``, the first American Puterbaugh fellow California Young Reader Medal for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian 2013 The John Dos Passos Prize for Literature See also Children 's literature portal Indigenous peoples of North America portal Poetry portal Literature portal List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas Native American Renaissance Native American studies References Jump up ^ Eric Konigsberg, `` In His Own Literary World, a Native Son Without Borders '', The New York Times, October 20, 2009. ^ Jump up to : American Booksellers Association ( 2013 ). `` The American Book Awards / Before Columbus Foundation ( 1980 -- 2012 ) ''. BookWeb. Archived from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved 2013 - 09 - 25. 1996 (... ) Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie ^ Jump up to : `` National Book Awards -- 2007 ''. National Book Foundation ( NBF ). Retrieved 2012 - 04 - 15. ( With acceptance speech by Alexie, interview with Alexie, and other material, partly replicated for all five Young People 's Literature authors and books. ) ^ Jump up to : `` Odyssey Award winners and honor audiobooks, 2008 -- present ''. ALSC. ALA. Retrieved 2012 - 04 - 19. ^ Jump up to : Jacqueline Trescott, `` Sherman Alexie wins 2010 Pen / Faulkner fiction prize for War Dances '', The Washington Post, March 24, 2010. Retrieved 2012 - 03 - 12. Jump up ^ Johansen, Bruce E. ( 2010 ). Native Americans Today : A Biographical Dictionary. Santa Barbara, Calif. : Greenwood Press. pp. 7 -- 10. ISBN 978 - 0 - 313 - 35554 - 7. Jump up ^ Nourr, Sarah. `` Happy Birthday, Sherman Alexie ''. The Arts Partnership. Retrieved 13 March 2015. ^ Jump up to : Quirk, Sarah A. ( 2003 ). `` Sherman Alexie ( 7 October 1966 -- ) ''. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Seventh. 278 : 3 -- 10. Retrieved 2012 - 04 - 07. Jump up ^ Alexie, Sherman ( May 27, 2012 ). `` @ Sherman_Alexie : Elizabeth Warren is as close to her Indian ancestors as I am to my 19th - century Russian fur - trapping great - grandfather ''. Twitter. Archived from the original on October 1, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2018. ^ Jump up to : Cline, Lynn ( 2000 ). `` About Sherman Alexie ''. Ploughshares. 26 ( 4 ) : 197. Retrieved 2016 - 01 - 15. ^ Jump up to : `` Sherman Alexie ''. Authors and Artists for Young Adults. 28. 1999. Retrieved 2012 - 04 - 08. ^ Jump up to : `` Sherman Alexie ''. Encyclopedia of World Biography. 1998. Retrieved 2012 - 04 - 08. ^ Jump up to : `` Sherman Alexie ''. Authors and Artists for Young Adults. 85. 2011. Retrieved 2012 - 04 - 05. Jump up ^ `` A Conversation With Sherman Alexie ''. Blue Mesa Review. December 6, 2012. Retrieved 2013 - 04 - 02. ^ Jump up to : Official Sherman Alexie website Archived June 2, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ `` About Us : What is Longhouse Media ? ''. Longhouse Media. Jump up ^ Sherman Alexie Statement contributed by Shirley Qiu, Seattle Times. Dated February 28, 2018. Jump up ^ Litsa Dremousis Responds to Sherman Alexie 's Statement, The Stranger, March 1, 2018. Jump up ^ Prachi Gupta, Native American Lit Community Warns of Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Sherman Alexie. Jezebel, February 27, 2018. Jump up ^ ' Manhattan Beach, ' ' You Do n't Have to Say You Love Me, ' receive 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, ALA News February 14, 2018. Jump up ^ https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/people/sherman-alexie-declines-carnegie-medal-publisher-postpones-paperback-wake-sexual-allegations/ Jump up ^ Schilling, Vincent ( March 19, 2018 ). `` Sherman Alexie Declines Carnegie Medal ; Publisher Postpones Paperback in wake of Sexual Allegations ''. Indian Country Today. Archived from the original on March 30, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018. Jump up ^ ' AILA Rescinds Sherman Alexie 's 2008 YA Book of the Year Award ', School Library Journal March 21, 2018. Jump up ^ rdsathene, `` Sherman Alexie `` Arizona has made our books sacred documents now. '' Daily Kos, February 1, 2012. Jump up ^ Ettlinger, Marian. `` Sherman Alexie ''. Salem Press. Archived from the original on April 14, 2013. Retrieved 2013 - 04 - 02. Jump up ^ Sanders, Ken ( June 6, 1992 ). `` The Business of Fancydancing - Stories and Poems ( 1992 ) BOOK APPRAISAL ; Ken Sanders Rare Books, Salt Lake City, UT ''. Antiques Roadshow. Jump up ^ `` The Toughest Indian in the World ( review ) ''. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012. Retrieved 2011 - 09 - 20. Jump up ^ Jess Row ( November 21, 2012 ). `` Without Reservation : ' Blasphemy, ' by Sherman Alexie ''. New York Times. Sunday book review. Retrieved 2012 - 11 - 25. ^ Jump up to : Klinkenborg, Verlyn ( June 18, 1995 ). `` America at the Crossroads : Life on the Spokane Reservation ''. Los Angeles Times Book Review. Retrieved 2012 - 04 - 05. Jump up ^ `` You Do n't Have to Say You Love Me ''. Hachette Book Group. Retrieved 2017 - 06 - 21. Jump up ^ `` Sherman Alexie 's brave new memoir delves into his childhood ''. The Seattle Times. 2017 - 06 - 19. Retrieved 2017 - 06 - 21. Jump up ^ `` Writer Sherman Alexie is back on the road : ' I averted a crisis ' ''. Star Tribune. Retrieved 2017 - 12 - 06. Jump up ^ `` Smoke Signals ''. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2013 - 04 - 02. Jump up ^ `` Winners ''. California Young Reader Medal. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Past Recipients and Select Works ''. Longwood University. Retrieved October 5, 2017. Other sources Alexie, Sherman ; Bill Clinton and Jim Lehrer. `` A Dialogue on Race with President Clinton ''. News Hour. July 9, 1998. Nygren, Åse. `` A World of Story - Smoke : A Conversation with Sherman Alexie. '' MELUS 30.4 ( Winter 2005 ) : 149 -- 69. West, Dennis, and Joan M. West. `` '' Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals : An Interview with Sherman Alexie ``. Cineaste 23.4 ( Fall 1998 ) : 29 -- 33. External links and further reading Wikiquote has quotations related to : Sherman Alexie Official website Sherman Alexie at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Sherman Alexie on IMDb Voice of the New Tribes article by Duncan Campbell in `` The Guardian '' January 3, 2003 Sherman Alexie 's poem `` Punch '' in Gulf Coast : A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts ( 24.1 ). Berglund, Jeff and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie : A Collection of Critical Essays, ( 2010 ) ISBN 978 - 1 - 60781 - 008 - 7. Sherman Alexie at Library of Congress Authorities, with 26 catalog records Appearances on C - SPAN Sherman Alexie 's heartbreaking reason for pausing his book tour - via KUOW News and Information Interviews `` Sherman Alexie '' by Robert Capriccioso, Identity Theory, published March 23, 2003 `` Sherman Alexie '' by Joelle Fraser, Iowa Review, copyright 2001 `` Northwest Passages : Sherman Alexie '' by Emily Harris, Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, broadcast October 8, 2009 `` Interview With Sherman Alexie '' as 2007 National Book Award winner, by Rita Williams - Garcia `` No More Playing Dead for American Indian Filmmaker Sherman Alexie '' by Rita Kempley, The Washington Post, July 3, 1998 `` Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Cultural Borders '' by Bill Moyers, broadcast April 12, 2013 -- with `` Dig Deeper '' on Alexie 's life, work, and influence Fiction by Sherman Alexie The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven ( 1994 ) Reservation Blues ( 1995 ) Indian Killer ( 1996 ) The Toughest Indian in the World ( 2000 ) Ten Little Indians ( 2003 ) Flight ( 2007 ) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian ( 2007 ) War Dances ( 2009 ) Blasphemy ( 2012 ) VIAF : 46892548 LCCN : n91093126 ISNI : 0000 0001 1569 383X GND : 115374930 SELIBR : 335376 SUDOC : 057036098 BNF : cb129548486 ( data ) NDL : 00714467 NKC : xx0017510 BNE : XX825792 SNAC : w66h52mn Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sherman_Alexie&oldid=837738130 '' Categories : 1966 births Living people 20th - century American novelists 20th - century male writers 20th - century American poets 20th - century American short story writers 21st - century American novelists 21st - century American poets 21st - century American short story writers American children 's writers American film directors American male novelists American male poets American male screenwriters American male short story writers American short story writers American people of Russian descent American people with disabilities Coeur d'Alene people Filmmakers from Seattle Gonzaga University alumni National Book Award for Young People 's Literature winners Native American children 's writers Native American novelists Native American poets Native American short story writers PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction winners People from Stevens County, Washington People with bipolar disorder People with hydrocephalus Postmodern writers Spokane people Simon & Schuster authors The New Yorker people Washington State University alumni Writers from Seattle PEN / Malamud Award winners American Book Award winners 21st - century male writers Novelists from Washington ( state ) Hidden categories : All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from November 2016 Articles with permanently dead external links Webarchive template wayback links Use mdy dates from December 2014 Incomplete lists from May 2017 Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC - ID identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikiquote Aragonés تۆرکجه Български Català Čeština Deutsch فارسی Français Italiano Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Português Русский کوردی Suomi Svenska 中文 10 more Edit links This page was last edited on 22 April 2018, at 18 : 44. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: for which book is author sherman alexie best known for
Answer: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven