Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr

(born October 7, 1966) is a poet, writer, filmmaker, and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a Native American growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington

some of his best known works are The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1994), a book of short stories, and Smoke Signals (1998), a film of his screenplay based on The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

His first novel, Reservation Blues, received one of the fifteen 1996 American Book Awards. His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie). His collection of short stories and poems, entitled War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Life

Sherman Alexie was born on October 7, 1966 on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was of Coeur d'Alene descent and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, of Colville, Flathead, Spokane and white descent.

He was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity.

Because of the hydrocephalus, Alexie underwent brain surgery when he was six months old. It was a surgery that he was not expected to survive, and if he did only with permanent mental disabilities.

However, Alexie's surgery was successful and he survived with no damage to his mental faculties. Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington, on the Spokane Indian reservation.

His father was an alcoholic who often left the house for days at a time.

To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts and worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post.

Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids on the reservation. He recalls being nicknamed "The Globe" because he had a large head due to the hydrocephalus. Until the age of seven,

Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting and had to take strong drugs to control them. He was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males because of his health problems. Despite this difficult upbringing, Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available to him, including auto repair manuals.[

بالاضافة الى انه من اصول هندية ، اجرى عملية في الدماغ كانت هناك مخاوف بأنه لن ينجو منها، لكنه نجى ، وكان يصاب بنوبات صرع وتشنج وهو صغير لحين اجريت له العملية. ايضا والده كان مدمن على الكحول. الوالدة كانت تعمل في اكثر من عمل لتعيل العائلة. ايضا عانى الكثير من حياتة وعلاقاته مع المجتمع.
يعني حياة كارثية بكل ما في الكلمة من معنى.

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