Corliss Joseph in "The Search Engine"

A nineteen-year-old student at Washington State University from Spokane, Corliss is a Spokane Indian who is "very short, a few inches under five feet, maybe 30 pounds overweight, and plain-featured. But her skin was clear and dark brown (like good coffee!) and her long black hair hung down past her waist." Loved and supported by her mother and uncles, Corliss is nevertheless misunderstood because of her desire to become a writer. Corliss is bright and motivated to discover her identity as a Native American and as a poet. Her artistic quest becomes a personal quest for the elusive Indian poet Harlan Atwater, whose work she discovers by accident one day in the campus library. When she finally tracks him down in Seattle, she is shocked and disappointed to discover that he is an ordinary person, like her. The primary difference is that...