Sherman Alexie is 33rd Recipient of WSU's
Highest Alumnus Award
Award-winning poet, author, screenwriter and film
director Sherman Alexie received Washington State
University's highest honor for WSU alumni on October 10,
2003.
Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, grew up on the
Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, about 50 miles
northwest of Spokane. He received his B.A. in American
studies from WSU in Pullman in 1994. Two of his poetry
collections - The Business of Fancydancing and
I Would Steal Horses - were published just one
year after he graduated from WSU.
His poetry books include One Stick Song (2000),
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998), The Summer
of Black Widows (1996), Water Flowing Home
(1995), Old Shirts & New Skins (1993),
First Indian on the Moon (1993), I Would
Steal Horses (1992), and The Business of
Fancydancing (1992).
He is also the author of several novels and collections
of short fiction including his latest, Ten Little
Indians (2003); The Toughest Indian in the
World (2000); Indian Killer (1996);
Reservation Blues (1994), which won the Before
Columbus Foundation's American Book Award; and The
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993),
which received a Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and is
now required reading on many college campuses.
In 1999, The New Yorker named Alexie as one of
the top writers for the new millennium, listing him among
"20 Writers for the 21st Century" in its Summer Fiction
Edition. Alexie's other honors include poetry fellowships
from the Washington State Arts Commission and the
National Endowment for the Arts, a Lila Wallace-Reader's
Digest Writers' Award and Sundance Film Festival
awards.
Known as a poet and writer, Alexie made his debut as a
screen writer with the script for the movie Smoke
Signals based on a story from his book The Lone
Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Smoke
Signals was honored with two awards at the 1998
Sundance Film Festival. The Business of
Fancydancing, which is now available on DVD, marks
Alexie's directorial debut. The Business of
Fancydancing won awards last year at several Film
Festivals including Victoria, San Francisco and Durango.
Established in 1962, the Regents' Distinguished Alumnus Award is for alumni "who shall have made a truly distinguished contribution to society, or who, through personal achievement, shall have brought distinction to Washington State University."
Alexie was nominated for the award by the College of Liberal Arts, and nominators included professor and poet Alex Kuo, Alexie's friend and mentor during his student years at WSU. In nominating Alexie, faculty members detailed not only his achievements, honors and awards, but also the importance of his Native American voice to a broad audience.
Alexie is the 33rd recipient of WSU's top award for its
alumni.
Previous winners include broadcaster Edward R. Murrow;
Philip Abelson, "Father of the Atomic Submarine," and his
wife, Dr. Neva Martin Abelson, a physician who helped
develop the Rh blood factor test; nationally-known
sociologists William Julius Wilson and James E.
Blackwell; and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft.
For more about Sherman Alexie:
Official Web Site
Full Biography
Sherman Alexie & Alex Kuo
Photo by Rob Casey