By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Author, screenwriter, prize-winning film director and four-time world heavyweight poetry champion Sherman Alexie will speak in Dowagiac Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. at Central Middle School.
Presented by the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival, Alexie, whom The New Yorker in June 1999 called one of the top writers for the 21st century, is the fall feature in a long line of noted authors and the very best in current literary figures.
Alexie's talk is titled, "An Urban Indian's Comic, Poetic and Highly Irreverent Look at the World."
Reception tickets are still available at $60 each, but for only 100 patrons, and those, the committee said Wednesday, are going fast. Other tickets are available at $25, $20 and $15, but seating is limited. For reservations or other information, call Visiting Authors Chairman Rich Frantz at 269/782-8070.
The movie "Smoke Signals," written and directed by Alexie based on his book "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," brought fame to the Spokane Indians. Alexie is a Spokane/Coueur d'Alene Indian from Wellpinit, Wash. -- a town on the Spokane Indian reservation.
His current film, "The Business of Fancydancing," was reviewed as a work of "…compelling grace and originality."
Called "an important new voice in American literature" by the Boston Globe and "one of the best writers we have" by Leslie Marmon Silko, Alexie's latest bestseller is "Ten Little Indians." Among many publications giving the volume a "thumbs up" is Book magazine.
His other titles include "Indian Killer," "The Toughest Indian in the World" and "Reservation Blues."
Shortly after publication of his first book, "The Business of Fancydancing" -- a collection of poetry and stories -- Alexie was described as "one of the major lyric voices of our time" in the New York Times Book Review, which selected the book as a "1992 Notable Book of the Year."
That same year, Alexie received a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.
Each year, 1998-2001, Alexie won the World Heavyweight Champion Poetry Bout at the Taos Poetry Circus, becoming the first poet in its history to hold the title four consecutive years.
Alexie also won the regional 1999 New York Heavyweight Poetry Bout.
His several books of poetry include "Old Shirts and New Skins," "The Summer of Black Widows and "One Stick Song."
Alexie's first novel, "Reservation Blues," published in 1995, was selected as a Booklist Editors Choice Award for Fiction and was awarded an American Book Award from The Before Columbus Foundation in 1996.
For his skilled fiction writing, Alexie was also named one of Granta magazine's "Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of Forty."
He was one of 20 writers The New Yorker featured in the magazine's summer fiction edition, "20 Writers for the 21st Century."
Alexie's first screenplay, "Smoke Signals," based on his book "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," became the first feature film produced, written and directed by an American Indian.
It premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy.
Smoke Signals also received a Christopher Award in 1999.
Alexie was nominated for the Independent Feature Project/West 1999 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
Alexie in 2001 received the PEN/Malamud award, honoring excellence in the art of storytelling for "The Toughest Indian in the World."
His film, "The Business of Fancydancing," which he wrote and directed, was selected for the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
He is also adapting for the screen "Reservation Blues," which he will direct and co-produce for SearchParty Films.