Sherman Alexie Speaks

Poet-Novelist-Filmmaker (and personal favorite writer) Sherman Alexie was a featured guest at the Texas Book Festival in Austin, speaking at the Texas State Capitol and, as shown here, participating in a Young Adult novelists' panel at Alamo Drafthouse-Lamar on November 3, 2007. He reads a snippet from his new book "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" and then answers a few questions at the end. The panel included eight writers (i'll post clips of some of the others over time). At one point he appears to be flippant, but it's a false impression -- the questions were being randomly drawn from a fishbowl, and the questioner had no choice about who or what to ask (a perfectly odd format). In any case i thought Sherman handled it with great humor and poise, and made the situation evolve into a funny and astute answer.

Also on the panel were Jacques Couvillon, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Adrienne Kress, Perry Moore, April Lurie, Neil Shusterman and Brian Yansky. The hosts were Barbara Chisholm and Rosalind Faires.

Check out Sherman's site at http://www.fallsapart.com/

Note that the new book he reads from here has just been nominated for a National Book Award!

UPDATE: Alexie WON the National Book Award for this book. Congrats Sherman!

Many, many thanks to Sherman for posting a link to this video on the homepage of his website. Esokapi!

Alexie is also the writer and director of three acclaimed films -- Smoke Signals (the first film made and produced by an all Native American cast and crew), The Business of Fancydancing (a highly underrated and overlooked film in my opinion) and 49.

Filmed and edited by tony gallucci, milk river film
Holly Riedel, executive producer

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Sherman
• Alexie
• Absolutely
• True
• Diary
• Indian
• literature
• novel
• Texas
• Book
• Festival
• Austin
• tony
• gallucci
• milkriverfilm

[cat02345]

oh i have to read one of his best books (the absoulutly true diary of a part time indian)for my high skool summer reading and i already started to read it and it is funny lub iit!=]

[milkriverfilm]

this reading is about that same book . . .

[doodlehh]

Flight was shelved in Adult Fiction at my local library. Just interesting.

[DocBee2000]

This guy is like a National Treasure for Indians. Part-Time Indian, The Toughest Indian In the World, and Flight are my favorites. Indian Killer was too sad and traumatic. I plan on reading and rereading these gems for the rest of my life. Thanks Sherman.

[sisnce]

so was the toughest indian in the world his coming out of the closet book?

[EDLProduction]

we have read this book in englich lesson in a german school. oh yeah! its full of irony , grief and fun! an amazing mix. wish me luck for tomorrows class test :p

[klef56]

@sonicshortsextreme

They almost sound like a laugh track!

Amazing book! Inspiring....

[inga5574]

He´s pretty much telling his own story in the novel "the absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian"...fantastic book!! I liked it a lot!

[acerb45666555]

when will native and non-native authors refer to theyre native subjects by theyre Real titles?? a CREE, etc, is not an INDIAN!! i doubt any Cree ever heard of Sharukh Khan!! and every Indian on earth knows who Sharukh khan is!

[Hookah92]

Flight!

[getlikelexxy]

@CrazyNative4 No, he is married. (to a lady xD)

[whenkeepingitrealgoe]

@CrazyNative4 I suppose you're wondering that because of the way he speaks? If you read "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" or googled him, you would know that he was born with hydrocephalic, which may have gave him a lisp and stuttering problem. I don't know how close to the truth the book is, but he does call it an autobiography, so it appears to be something that he overcame.