Sherman Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, on the Spokane Reservation in Washington state. His mother was a Spokane native and his father was Coeur d'Alene.
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Alexie had fluid retention in the brain as a child, a condition known as hydrocephalus. This caused swelling in his head that affected his level of activity. Even after surgery, Alexie had seizures. Since he could not participate in many normal childhood activities, he turned to reading.
Reservation Blues (1995), Alexie's first novel, won the American Book Award in 1996. In this book, Alexie probes issues of poverty and marginalization faced by Native Americans and how these can lead to alcoholism. He has rejected the term "Native American", which was introduced in the latter part of the twentieth century in an attempt at political correctness. He has indicated that he prefers to use the term, "Indians" instead.
He has been an accomplished writer, producing ten collections of poetry between 1992 and 2017. He has four novels, which were published between 1995 and 2007. Between 1993 and 2012, he published five collections of short stories. In 2017, he published his memoir You Don't Have to Say You Love Me.
In 2012, Alexie published the short story Blasphemy, which looked at the connection between Native Americans, reservations, poverty, and alcoholism. He describes the situation of alcoholism in the Indian world: "I'm a recovering alcoholic. I've been sober for 20 years; my dad died ten years ago of alcoholism; my big sister died in an alcohol-related house fire. I've had three aunts and uncles die of alcoholism, so it's everywhere in my life. It's a big problem in the Indian world, it's epidemic."
In recent years, Alexie hit a stumbling block in his public image and career. Three women had corroborating accusations against Alexie for sexual misconduct, as reported on NPR. But, there were many more. After these accusations came to light, Alexie lost some of the previous honors he had attained. The Institute of American Indian Arts changed the name of the Sherman Alexie Scholarship to the MFA Alumni Scholarship. A blog called Native Americans in Children's Literature removed any references to Alexie. In 2018, the American Library Association awarded Alexie the Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir. While it was considering rescinding the award, Alexie decided to decline the award. Along the same lines, the American Indian Library Association rescinded the Best Young Adult Book Award granted for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Poet Joy Harjo, a mentor of Alexie, issued this statement effectively acknowledging the Native American community as part of the Me Too Movement: "Feeling deep grief and anger with our Native writing community in what has finally, after years, come to light about the abuses of power by one of our own." She did not mention Alexie's name.
Sherman Alexie Education
Sherman Alexie's education was a unique experience. Alexie went to an all-white high school off the reservation and was the only Native American in his school. He has stated that it was a culture shock and that he felt like he'd walked into a foreign country. There was some prejudice and bullying, but that soon lost its appeal and went away. He also states that he was the indigenous person, but the irony was that he felt like the foreign one. He did manage to become the class president and a member of the debate team.
He received a scholarship to attend Gonzaga University in Spokane but did not complete the degree there. He had begun to drink a lot. Later, in 1991, he received his bachelor's degree from Washington State University. He found his direction as a writer through one of the poetry courses he took.
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