Rosenberry Lecture: Why Indigenous Crime Fiction Matters 1:00 pm

Join award-winning novelist and professor of Native American Studies and Political Science David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Sicangu Lakota Nation) for a discussion on how Indigenous crime fiction is uniquely suited to tackle complex topics such as colonization and sovereignty. Weiden will examine how the genre can inform non-Native readers about the little-known inequities on reservations and in urban areas while also examining systemic issues that affect Native citizens in the American political system. A book signing will follow the talk. David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is the author of Winter Counts (Ecco, 2020), which was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The novel won the Electa Quinney Award from the Association for the Study of American Indian Literature. The book was also the winner of the Anthony, Thriller, Lefty, Barry, Macavity, Spur, High Plains, Tillie Olsen, CrimeFest (UK), Crime Fiction Lover (UK) Awards, and was longlisted for the Hammett Prize, Shamus Award, Colorado Book Award, Reading the West Award, and the VCU Cabell First Novel Award. The novel was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, an Indie Next pick, the main selection of the Book of the Month Club, and named the Best Book of the Year by NPR, Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The Guardian, and other magazines. The novel is included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 best mystery and thriller novels ever. He teaches in the low-residency Pan-European MFA program at Cedar Crest College and at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts, his law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a MacDowell Fellow, Ucross Fellow, Sewanee Fellow, Tin House Scholar, Ragdale Foundation resident, Vermont Studio Center Fellow, VONA alumnus, and received the 2018 PEN/America Writing for Justice Fellowship. He’s a national Board member for the Mystery Writers of America, an active member of the International Thriller Writers, Western Writers of America, and a member of the Dramatists Guild and Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers. He’s a professor of Native American Studies and Political Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and he lives in Colorado with his family. His last name, Weiden, is pronounced “Why-den.” Heska Wanbli is pronounced “Heh-ska Wahn-blee.” His nation, the Sicangu Lakota, is pronounced: “See-chon-goo Lah-coat-ah.”

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Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2610373-0

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2610373-2

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