If you’ve heard about the disturbing number of missing persons that go uninvestigated on Native Reservations, its’ likely from the Taylor Sheridan directed film Wind River starring Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, Avengers) and Elizabeth Olsen (Avengers, Love & Death).
I really enjoyed that film, but found a much more complete picture in the thriller Winter Counts, a novel about reservation “enforcers” who step in as vigilantes when traditional law enforcement has ignored the needs and rights of the victims.
I sat down with David, the author, to discuss the novel and complex social issues that led to him writing it.
If you prefer to stream this via YouTube, click here.
Check out David’s bio as well.
David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is the author of the national bestseller Winter Counts (Ecco, 2020), which was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The novel is the winner of the Electa Quinney Award from the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures. The book was also the winner of the Anthony, Thriller, Lefty, Barry, Macavity, Spur, High Plains, Tillie Olsen, CrimeFest (UK), Crime Fiction Lover (UK) Awards, and was longlisted for the Hammett Prize, Shamus Award, Colorado Book Award, Reading the West Award, and the VCU Cabell First Novel Award. The novel was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, an Indie Next pick, main selection of the Book of the Month Club, and named a Best Book of the year by NPR, Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The Guardian, and other magazines. The novel is included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 best mystery and thriller novels of all time.
Weiden received his MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, his law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He’s professor of English and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Stony Brook University and also serves on the faculty of the Cedar Crest Pan-European MFA Program. He lives in New York and Colorado with his family.
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