sun_set_bravely | From the Writer's Almanac

It's the birthday of the poet and novelist Sherman Alexie, born near Spokane, Washington (1966) on an Indian reservation. His first big success was his collection of short stories "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." It was one of the first works of fiction to portray Indians as Americans who watch all the same TV programs as everybody else and eat the same breakfast cereal.

Sherman Alexie said, "All too often Indian writers write about the kind of Indian they wish they were. So I try to write about the kind of Indian I am. I'm just as much a product of The Brady Bunch as I am of my grandmother."