Paris, meth labs, flashlight batteries, pen, paper and a chardonnay: Indigenous author Angeline Boulley finds overnight success 36 years in the making
Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet "overnight success" Anishinaabe YA writer Angeline Boulley.
Helpful pronunciation tips from her website: Angeline rhymes with ‘wine,’
and Boulley sounds like ‘bully.’
First, I have to
ask, how did you enjoy your September trip to Europe? Was it all book tour, or
were you able to stop and smell the Roman roses?
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| Angeline in Paris |
For it being my first trip to
Europe, I made it an adventure. I visited four cities in Germany over a
two-week period and before spending two weeks in Paris. It was evenly divided
between book events and free time. And, yes, I smelled the Parisian red
geraniums!
You were working
in Mt. Pleasant when you met two co-workers, strong Anishinaabe Kwewag, who
served as inspiration for Aunt Teddy. Who were they, and how did they reflect
the uniquely individual, no-nonsense yet compassionate character?
They are two sisters – Audrey
and Bonnie. Both were leaders who advocated not just for their own department
or family, but for the community as a whole and those who were the most
vulnerable.
To someone
looking on from afar, your debut novel’s progress might seem like an overnight
success. 60 agents “liked” your pitch. The manuscript went out on submission
Thursday, and you had your first offer by Sunday. There were a dozen bidders
for the book at auction, and two weeks later, another spirited auction for the
film rights (won by the Obama Netflix company!)
But it wasn’t
“overnight” at all, was it?
It was an overnight success 36
years in the making! I first had the idea when I was a senior in high school,
but I didn’t start writing my first draft until I was 44. It took another ten
years to finish a draft that I felt was good enough to get agent
representation.
While writing Firekeeper’s Daughter, you first awoke
an hour before your school-aged kids to get some writing in. Then, 90 minutes
before their alarm, and finally, you’d rise at 4:30 am to get three solid hours
in before school and work. What was the draw of the early morning?
I was not a morning person,
so it was a surprise to discover how enjoyable the early morning could be. The house is quiet, my mind
is calm, and the characters speak with clarity.
You described an
episode, while waiting for your son’s hockey practice to end, where you climbed
into the trunk of your car to make sure a person could fit in the trunk. When
the tribal police came to ask if you were OK, you said, “I’m a writer. This is
research.” What other “research” have you done for your books?
I attended a training at the
Michigan State Police academy on different methods of meth production and how
to identify clandestine meth labs. I interviewed FBI agents, IRS agents, Tribal
law enforcement officers, and a former Assistant US Attorney for the Western District
of Michigan.
You are actually a Firekeeper’s Daughter. Your father, a truck driver in
the mundane real world, held the firekeeper role, and you claimed him to be
“one of my greatest teachers.” What did you learn from him?
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| Firekeeper and daughter |
He’s the first person I go to
with questions about Ojibwe culture. Whenever I call to ask how to say
something in Anishinaabemowin, he has to sleep on it. Although it was his first
language growing up, he’s out of practice speaking Ojibwe nowadays. But he
dreams in the language sometimes.
Firekeeper’s Daughter, which you pitched as Indigenous Nancy Drew
meets 21 Jump Street, won a slew of awards: the Printz, the Morris, the
American Indian Youth Literature Award, and was listed as one of Time
Magazine’s 100 Best Young Adult Books “of all time.” You were surprised at the
honors, and said, “For a Native author to win, I knew it was larger than
myself.” What did you mean by that?
Each year since 2002, about
1% of all the books published for children and teens will feature a Native main
character. It translates to around 60-75 books per year out of 3000 to 4000.
Twenty years ago, it was 9X more likely that a story about Native Americans was
authored by someone who was not Native themselves. We’ve always had great
storytellers, but Native writers were not getting the book deals. The most
infuriating aspect was seeing non-Native authors peddle “trauma / poverty porn”
without regard for the actual Native people whose cultural knowledge and
spiritual practices were being mined for the stories.
To use a baseball analogy, I
felt that being a debut author was like getting one turn at bat in the major
leagues. I worried that if I didn’t get on base, then it might harm other
emerging Native writers from getting signed to the big leagues, i.e., traditional
publishing. Other authors might get multiple times at bat, but for someone from
an underrepresented community, it seems like you only get one shot. All this to
say that winning an award and hitting the New York Times bestseller list feels
like a home run.
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| Kindergarten Angeline |
You shared audio
books with your father, and you, your mom and your siblings, would walk a mile
to the library every Saturday. You would save your money to buy batteries for
your flashlight so that you could stay up late reading when the rest of the
family slept. Obviously, the love of reading ruled your young soul. What were
some of your favorite books growing up, and what are some of your TBR pile now?
My childhood favorites
include: I am the Cheese by Robert Cormier, Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan,
and everything written by Judy Blume. My all-time favorites: The Marrow Thieves
by Cherie Dimaline, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, The Hazel Wood by
Melissa Albert, Heart Berries by Terese Mailhot, and Marcelo in the Real World
by Francisco X. Stork. I also must shoutout my favorite audiobooks: The Girls
I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe, Sadie by Courtney Summers, and Project Hail Mary by
Andy Weir.
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| Senior year Angeline |
It wasn’t until
high school that you found a book featuring a Native American protagonist, but
when you finished, you were “less than satisfied.” What does it mean to you to
be writing the truth of your Ojibway experience?
Since my book debuted during
the pandemic, most of my events for the first six months were virtual. During
the rare, in-person, socially-distanced events, both I and the readers were
masked, so all you could see were each other’s eyes. But it happened more than
once that an Indigenous woman would approach me and I asked her if I got it
right (our experience as Anishinaabe kwewag) and she let me know that she felt
seen.
Author Debbie
Reese believes “curtains” should be added to the windows, mirrors and sliding
glass doors of cultural literature. You said, “I write to preserve my culture
and edit to protect it.” Can you explain?
Indigenous knowledge is a
precious resource. Being an Indigenous author comes with a responsibility to
your community. Each author must decide when to pull the curtain across the
window in order to protect that knowledge. For example, I decided not to
include any actual ceremonies – such as what happens in the sweat lodge. But I
did hear from an Indigenous reader from the southwest who felt that what I did
share was beyond what would be appropriate in her community. She basically
said, “Man, you northern Natives give it all away.”
You described in
a presentation how you were uncertain whether you could fulfill the two-book
deal you’d signed, consoling yourself that if all you achieved was the one
story, at least “I made it epic.”
But, while
walking one day, a voice in your head said, “I stole everything they think I
did, and stuff they don’t even know about.” You rushed to a nearby café and
asked for pen, paper and a chardonnay. And thus was born Warrior Girl Unearthed. That’s the author’s dream, to have a
character speak through them.
Can you tell us
about the new novel, due out May of 2023?
It’s Indigenous Lara Croft,
except she’s a 16-year-old who is raiding museums and private collections to
bring our ancestors and their sacred items back home to Sugar Island.
FYI: -- There are 108,328 ancestors still held by museums required to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which was signed into law 32 years ago!
You were
fortunate to land the talent of Indigenous artists for your two book covers.
Can you tell us a little about the two cover illustrators?
Moses Lunham was the cover
artist for FKD, which is the most stunningly beautiful book cover I have ever
seen. He is Ojibwe from Kettle and Stony Point First Nation in Ontario.
Michaela Goade is the cover
artist for WGU. She is Tlinget from Juneau, Alaska, and was the first
Indigenous artist to win the Caldecott Medal, awarded for distinguished
children’s book illustration, for We Are Water Protectors, which was written by
Carole Lindstrom.
The numbers tell
a horrifying story of the danger Indigenous girls and women face with the
likelihood of assault and violence, and the unlikely prospects for prosecution
and justice for the crimes they suffer. What can be done to alleviate this
injustice?
This is such an overwhelming
question. It deserves a dissertation, but instead, all I can give is a bullet
point:
● Resources for tribes to implement the Special
Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction provisions in the 2022 reauthorization of the
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), 25 USC 1304. This amendment to the Indian
Civil Rights Act recognizes tribes’ inherent right to exercise criminal
jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit violent crimes against Native
Americans on tribal lands.
Finally, as a
freshman at CMU, you recalled a euchre marathon that lasted all week. Maybe not
something to brag about back home, but I suspect it was a mythic quest at the
time. Are you still a pretty savvy euchre player?
Yes. I bank all of my pesky
irritations, simmering petty grudges, and honey-dipped rage so as to unleash it
on the euchre card table. Play at your own risk.
Are there any
questions you wished I had asked?
Who is your hero? Moira Rose.
What superpower do you wish
you had? I wish I was an omniglot.
Unpopular take? Everyone
hates the way Alex Karev was written off Grey’s Anatomy but no one has an
alternative that I’d buy into.
Please share any
social media links:
Twitter: @ fineangeline
Instagram / Pinterest /
TikTok / Linkedin: @ angelineboulley
Facebook: @ angelineboulley/author
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