Angeline Boulley traveled a long road before finding success as a writer.
“My 37 year overnight success story,” she joked during an interview with TSPR. Boulley minced no words when asked how she succeeded after years of working on her first novel.
“I am tenacious.”
Her first book, Fire Keeper’s Daughter, was published in 2021 and was a New York Times bestseller. Her second novel, Warrior Girl on Earth, will be released next week on Tuesday, May 2.
Boulley will talk about the books and read from them when she visits the Western Illinois University Art Gallery on Thursday, April 27. A craft talk will begin at 3 p.m. The readings, a Q & A session, and a book signing will begin at 5 p.m. Both are free and open to the public.
Boulley is from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. The characters in her books come from Native American backgrounds, which she said drives home the point that Native Americans are still here.
“I think too many of our stories are set in the past, and there’s a lack of education about contemporary Native American communities and issues,” she said.
She said there is an epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous people, and there are jurisdictional loopholes that prevent justice for many people.
Boulley covered those issues extensively in Fire Keeper’s Daughter. She has sold the film rights to the book to the Obamas, who plan to turn the story into a Netflix series.
Her forthcoming book, Warrior Girl on Earth, delves into the repatriation of Native American ancestors’ remains and sacred items on display in museums and institutions, despite a federal law that requires their return.
“The Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act states that museums that receive public funding must return – upon request of the tribe – these bones and objects that were taken, in many cases, illegally,” she said.
As for her “overnight success,” Boulley said she always believed in the story, but it took a long time to improve her writing to be worthy of telling it.
“I wrote a really bad draft when I was 44. Then it took 10 years of revising and trying new drafts,” she said.
She also read books about the craft of writing, and re-read her favorite books to examine what made those books so special to her.
She said her favorite author is Cherie Dimaline, whose 2017 book, The Marrow Thieves, was an international bestseller.
Boulley’s appearance in Macomb is sponsored by the WIU English Department, the Fred Ewing Case and Lola Austin Case Writer-In-Residence program, and the College of Arts and Sciences.
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