Alaska Native Authors

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Month Continued!

It’s Indigenous Peoples Month, and I only touched on authors last week. So here’s a roundup with more authors for you to check out!

First, we are lucky to have many children’s and YA books by Indigenous authors and illustrators. If you want a great overview, I recommend Dr. Debbie Reese and Dr. Jean Mendoza’s website American Indians in Children’s Literature for reviews and extensive information about this topic. See the site at http://www.americanindiansinchildrensliterature.net.

Second, since I live in Alaska, I’m going to share my go-to list of Alaska Native authors and illustrators. This is not a complete list of all the excellent ones out there, but it will give you a taste of the width and breath of the talent we have up here. Feel free to comment to add to my list! (Note: My formatting got weird and I was not able to add the diacritics for some names—I apologize for that.)

Children’s Books:

Picture book authors Barbara and Ethan Atwater: https://www.westmarginpress.com/blog/alaskan-storytelling-culture/

Illustrator Michaela Goade:

https://www.michaelagoade.com

Board book and picture book author Angela Gonzalez:

https://athabascanwoman.com

Co-author (for Elizabeth Peratrovich, Fighter in Velvet Gloves) and artist Roy Peratrovich, Jr.:

http://www.ravenworksart.com/TheArtist.htm

Adult books:

(Many of these authors write in more than one genre.)

Nora Marks Dauenhauer:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nora-marks-dauenhauer