Sherman Alexie

Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. was born in Spokane, Washington, on October 7, 1966, to Sherman Joseph, a Coeur d'Alene Indian, and Lillian Agnes Cox, a Spokane Indian. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. As an infant, he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, an abnormal swelling of the brain due to excess fluid, and was not expected to survive to adulthood. At six months, he had surgery to correct the problem, but his head remained enlarged. This caused him to isolate himself from others as a child. Alexie turned to books to escape the poverty and alcoholism of the reservation, and by age twelve he had read all of the books at the Wellpinit School Library. When Alexie finished Washington State University, he was one of the first members of his tribe to graduate from college.

Much of Alexie's writing focuses on reshaping the idea of the...