Bio: Sherman Alexie has been described as one of the major lyric voices of our time by the New York Times Book Review, which selected his The Business of Fancydancing as a 1992 Notable Book of the Year. Alexie's several books of poetry include Old Shirts & New Skins, The Summer of Black Widows, and the recently published One Stick Song. Named one of "20 Writers for the 21st Century? by The New Yorker, Alexie competed in and won the World Heavyweight Championship Poetry Bout at the Taos Poetry Circus in 1998, 1999 and 2000, becoming the first poet in the history of the Bout to hold the title for three years. Alexie's first screenplay, Smoke Signals, based on his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, became the first feature film produced, written, and directed by American Indians. It premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy. In 1999 Smoke Signals received a Christopher Award, an award given for works of art--which affirm the highest values of the human spirit.? The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, published in 1994, was a citation winner for the PEN/Hemmingway Award for Best First Fiction. Other works of fiction include Reservation Blues, selected as a Booklist Editor's Choice Award for Fiction; Indian Killer, a New York Times Notable Book and one of People magazine's "Best of Pages" choices; and his most recent short story collection, The Toughest Indian in The World, was published by Atlantic Monthly press in May 2000. Sherman Alexie is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian from Wellpinit, Washington--a town on the Spokane Indian reservation. He currently resides in Seattle, WA, with his wife and son, and is working on new poems and stories.