Alexie Sherman

Sherman Joseph Alexie – or simply ‘Junior’ like main character in his novel – was born on October 7th 1966 in Spokane in the state of Washington where he spend his entire childhood on the Spokane Indian Reservation, west of the town.
The author was born with a life-treatning disease called ‘hydrocephalus’, which means celebral fluid in the cranial cavity had too much pressure ont he brain. An immediate operation however saved the little boy’s life; in addition, he did not suffer from any mental damages, but from other effects, e.g. seizures. Therefore, he was nicknamed “The Globe” because his head was larger than of other children his age. Due to his health problems he also had to take strong drugs to control his seizures and bed-wetting. Being an easy target for bullies therefore, he was excluded from many of the activities that young Indian males normally do.

In total Sherman Alexie has five siblings. His father, a member of the Indian tribe ‘Coeur d’Alene’ was an alcoholic who often left the house for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie’s mother Lillian Agnes Cox sewed quilts and worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post.

Sherman Alexie like Arnold decide at one point to leave the reservation and attend Reardan high school which was twenty-two miles off the reservation. Bacck then, he was the only Native American student. After a few months he became a star player on the basketball team, also became elected as class president and participated as a member of the debate team.

In 1985 the later author graduated and was offered a scholarship at The Roman Cahtolic Gonzaga University in Spokane. At this stage in life he hoped to become a doctor one day, but pressures lasting on him had a negative effect, so he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxieties. In the end, he found comfort in literature classes Having a mentor at his side, he started work on what was published in 1992 as his first collection “The business of fancy-dancing: stories and Viviane poems“.  Three years later, Sherman  was awarded a bachelor´s degree from Washington State University. At this his he had also stopped drinking which boosted his writing career.

More than ten years later, in 2005, the author became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth, and to using media for cultural expression and social change.

He is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Indian heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons.