We’ve come a long way from Peter Pan’s Tiger Lily and Pocohontas, but how far? Acclaimed authors Angeline Boulley and Cynthia Leitich Smith discuss Indigenous representation, craft, and the future of Indigenous kid lit.
Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island. Her debut novel Firekeeper's Daughter won the 2022 Printz Medal and the 2022 Morris Award. Her second novel, Warrior Girl Unearthed, was an instant New York Times bestseller.
Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee citizen) is a NYT bestselling author, 2024 Southern Mississippi Medallion Winner, and 2021 NSK Neustadt Laureate. Her novel Hearts Unbroken won an American Indian Youth Literature Award. Ancestor Approved was an ALA Notable Book, and Sisters of the Neversea received six starred reviews. Her 2023 release is the YA ghost mystery Harvest House, which has so far received three starred reviews. She looks forward to Mission One: The Vice Principal Program (Blue Stars #1), also by Kekla Magoon and Molly Murakami (Candlewick, 2024). Cynthia is the author-curator of Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperChildren’s.
Moderator: Dr. Debbie Reese: Tribally enrolled at Nambé Owingeh, Debbie Reese holds a PhD in Education and an MLIS. A former schoolteacher, she publishes the blog, American Indians in Children's Literature, and is a co-adaptor of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, for Young People. The ALSC selected her to deliver the 2019 May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture (now known as the Children's Literature Lecture Award).
