Growing up in a gang in the city can be dark. Growing up Native American in a gang in Chicago is a whole different story. This book takes a trip through that unexplored part of Indian Country, an intense journey that is full of surprises, shining a light on the interior lives of people whose intellectual and emotional concerns are often overlooked. This dark, compelling, occasionally inappropriate, and often hilarious linked story collection introduces a character who defies all stereotypes about urban life and Indians. He will be in readers’ heads for a long time to come.
Theodore "Ted" Van Alst Jr., an associate professor and director of Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University, is a creative editor for Transmotion, an online journal of postmodern indigenous studies. His fiction and photography have been widely published. He is the author of Sacred Smokes, as well as the editor of The Faster Redder Road: The Best UnAmerican Stories of Stephen Graham Jones (both from UNM Press).
Ted Van Alst will share work from his new book, Sacred Smokes, at 5:00 PM in the Merrill-Cazier Library on campus.
