Read aloud the biography of Sherman Alexie
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF
SHERMAN ALEXIE:
Sherman J. Alexie, Jr., was born in October 1966. A
Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in
Wellpinit, WA, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane, WA.
Born hydrocephalic, which means with water on the brain, Alexie
underwent a brain operation at the age of 6 months and was not expected to
survive. When he did beat the odds, doctors predicted he would live with
severe mental retardation. Though he showed no signs of this, he
suffered severe side effects, such as seizures, throughout his childhood.
In spite of all he had to overcome, Alexie learned to read by age three,
and
devoured novels, such as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath,
by age five. All these things ostracized him from his peers, though, and
he was often the brunt of other kids' jokes on the reservation.
As a teenager, after finding his mother's name written in a
textbook assigned to him at the Wellpinit school, Alexie made a conscious
decision to attend high school off the reservation in Reardan, WA, about 20
miles
south of Wellpinit, where he knew he would get a better
education. At Reardan High he was the only Indian, except for the school
mascot. There he excelled academically and became a star player on the
basketball
team. This experienced inspired his first young adult novel, The
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.
In 1985 Alexie graduated Reardan High and went on to attend
Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, on scholarship. After two years at
Gonzaga, he transferred to Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, WA.
Alexie planned to be a doctor and enrolled in pre-med courses at WSU,
but after fainting numerous times in human anatomy class realized he
needed to change his career path. That change was fueled when he stumbled
into a poetry workshop at WSU. Encouraged by poetry teacher Alex Kuo, Alexie
excelled at writing and realized he'd found his new path. Since starting
out as a writer, Alexie has published over a dozen books of both poetry and
prose, and has received several national awards and honors, including the
National Book Award and the Pen/Faulkner Award.
“I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods,” he says, “and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.”
Write on this quote for 10 minutes.
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