Everybody Reads Welcomes Sherman Alexie to Multnomah County Library March 12, 2013.

Everybody Reads is more than an author speech at the Schnitzer (March 12, 2013 in Portland). It is a chance to bring all of Multnomah County together around a single author or book. It is an opportunity to spark a community conversation around, for example, what it means to be of mixed racial origins. School children, seniors, adults, families can all engage in discussion about the writing, the author, and the social implications of the text.

This year’s Everybody Reads events, hosted by Multnomah County Library with a generous FY2013 grant from the Cultural Trust, will focus on two books by Northwest author Sherman Alexie. This 11th annual community reading project features two works by Alexie: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, for young adults, and Ten Little Indians, a collection of short stories, for adults.

The semi-autobiographical young adult novel follows teen protagonist Junior, a cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Junior leaves his school to attend a neighboring all-white high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. In addition to the direct grant from the Trust, Sherman Alexie’s March 2013 visit is made possible by two Cultural Trust grantees, Literary Arts, who sponsors the author’s trip to Portland, and OPB, which will welcome Alexie and Everybody Reads on Think Out Loud.

Sherman Alexie was born on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He currently lives in Seattle and is the author of six novels, many short stories and poems, and the first-ever all-Indian movie, Smoke Signals. He has won numerous awards, including an NEA fellowship, a PEN/Hemingway Award, and an American Book Award. Magazines ranging from The New Yorker to People have hailed him as a top 20 writer for the 21st Century, and “Best in Pages.” His books use humor and poignancy to explore the themes of growing up and living as an American Indian in current times.