It’s November, which means it’s Native American Heritage Month! To celebrate the voices and experiences of Native Americans from various nations across the country, I would like to highlight four distinguished Native American authors who’ve been recognized by the literary world as nothing short of masters of their craft.
- Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Colorado-born indigenous Chicana Kali Fajardo-Anstine is the nationally bestselling author of the novel “Woman of Light” (2022) and the critically acclaimed short story collection “Sabrina & Corina” (2019), both of which touch on the lives of indigenous Mexican-American families in the American West. She has won numerous accolades for her work, including an American Book Award and the 2021 Addison M. Metcalf Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, The Clark Prize, and more.
- Dr. Brandon Hobson
Dr. Brandon Hobson is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation Tribe of Oklahoma, where he was also born. He received his doctorate from Oklahoma State University and is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow. Hobson’s acclaimed Cherokee coming-of-age novel, “Where the Dead Sit Talking” (2018), was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Reading the West Book Award. His short stories have won a Pushcart Prize and have appeared in the anthologies “The Best American Short Stories”, “Conjunctions”, and elsewhere. His latest novel, “The Removed”, dives deeply into the rich realm of Cherokee folklore.
- Louise Erdirich
A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, which is a federally recognized tribe of the Anishinaabe, novelist, and poet Louise Erdirich from Minnesota is among the most significant writers of the second wave of the Native American Renaissance. Her 2009 fiction novel “The Plague of Doves” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. “The Round House” (2012) also earned accolades, and in 2021 Erdirich was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer for her culturally-infused historical fiction novel “The Night Watchman.”
Erdirich is also the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis that focuses on Native American literature.
- Tommy Pico
Tommy “Teebs” Pico is a quick-witted poet, podcaster, and TV writer who has authored several poetry books, including “IRL” (2016) and “Nature Poem” (2017). The former won the 2017 Brooklyn Literary Prize, with the latter earning a 2018 American Book Award. His other works have also received numerous distinctions. Originally from the Viejas Indian Reservation of the Kumeyaay Nation in southern California, Pico, who is openly gay, now spends his time between Brooklyn and LA. He is a poetry editor at Catapult Magazine and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub.
