Chris Kopacz
Special to Indian Country Today

Bestselling author Tommy Orange – whose debut novel “There There” drew widespread acclaim – accepted the Festival of Words Writers Award to kick off the annual event in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The award and a ceremonial blanket were presented by Orange’s wife Kateri and son Felix during a virtual event March 6 broadcast from their California home and the Tulsa City-County Library.

Orange, who is Cheyenne and Arapaho, thanked the Tulsa library for handing out the biennual award and his family members for their support. The novel tells the stories of 12 Indigenous people from various stages in life as they make their way to a California powwow.

“This is an honor,” he said.

Orange also thanked activist and academic Henrietta Mann, Cheyenne, who helped set up Native American studies programs at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Montana and Haskell Indian Nations University.

Mann told Indian Country Today in an email that Orange said her book, “Cheyenne Arapaho Education 1871-1982,” had been helpful for him.

The Festival of Words Writers Award joins other recognition bestowed on “There There” since its release in 2018, including the Pen/Hemingway Award, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and The New York Times Book Review’s “10 Best Books of the Year.” The book was named a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

The awards ceremony for Orange included an honor song with Pawnee Public School language students as drummers and dancers, and an online discussion with U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, Muscogee, of Tulsa.

Harjo, the author of nine books on poetry and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, was the first winner of the Festival of Words Writers Award in 2001. She is the first Native named as Poet Laureate and is serving her third term in the position.

She and Orange discussed their work as writers and professional musicians, and their upcoming projects. He is working on a sequel to “There There” and she recently released a new album of music and spoken words.

They also discussed the boarding school system and the Institute of American Indian Arts’ influence on Native artists. Orange has a master’s degree in fine arts from IAIA and served as a mentor for the Native-led New Mexico college.

The Tulsa City-County Library has handed out the writer’s award every two years since 2001. It is the only award given by a public library that is reserved for Indigenous writers.

The library’s American Indian Festival of Words, which is held every year, will continue through March 31 as a celebration of Native culture, with free online programs in textiles, pottery, language and storytelling.

The festival is supported by the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation, the Tulsa Library Trust and the Tulsa City-County Library’s American Indian Resource Center.

Chris Kopacz, Pascua Yaqui, is an Indian Country Today contributor based in Phoenix, Arizona.