David Heska Wanbli Weiden has been hailed as a major new voice in crime fiction, indigenous fiction, and American literature.
An enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation, David is author of the novel Winter Counts, nominated for the 2021 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The novel was also awarded the Spur Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and Best First Novel and was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by NPR, Publishers Weekly, and the Library Journal. His book recently won a 2021 High Plains Book Award for best book by an indigenous author.
Winter Counts is the story of a local Native American “enforcer” on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota who becomes obsessed with finding and stopping the dealer who is bringing increasingly dangerous drugs into his community.
Despite the hardship, poverty, and lack of adequate healthcare on the reservation, the people are resilient.
Erika T. Wurth is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She teaches creative writing at Western Illinois University and has been a guest writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her books include Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend, Buckskin Cocaine, and You Who Enter Here. Erika is of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent and was raised outside of Denver where she lives with her partner David Weiden, two stepchildren, and extremely fluffy dogs.
Her new novel Whitehorse is forthcoming via Flatiron/Macmillan.
Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Buzzfeed, Boulevard, The Writer’s Chronicle, and The Kenyon Review.
David Weiden and Erika T. Wurth are among a growing number of Native American writers that are garnering public attention and literary accolades, providing compelling narratives of the American experience that has rarely includes the Native American perspective.
