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Sherman Alexie Wins PEN/Faulkner Award

I’d like to call attention to yesterday’s announcement of the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, Author Sherman Alexie is the winner for fiction (War Dances, annotated in the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database) and if you haven’t read any of his work you are missing a treat. He is a prolific author of essays, fiction, poetry, and also wrote three screenplays. Figuring in much of his work are his experiences as a Coeur d’Alene/Spokane Indian who lived on the “rez” interfacing with “white” society and who continues to span these borders off the reservation. His style and point of view are unique — humorous, perceptive, original, pointed, poignant. Coincidentally, I had just finished annotating and posting the film, Smoke Signals, for which Alexie wrote the screenplay, when I learned that he was the recipient of this award. Every time I watch that film I find something new to savor so I was particularly pleased to learn of this award.

Felice Aull

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