iStories

Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Among his numerous works are the memoir You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me (Little, Brown, 2017); the poetry collection Face; the story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, winner of a PEN/Hemingway Award; the young adult book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, for which he received the National Book Award; and the picture book Thunder Boy Jr. In 2010 Alexie received the PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances, a collection of stories, essays, and poems. He is also a recipient of a 2015 Narrative Storyteller Award. Alexie lives with his family in Seattle.

Photograph by Chase Jarvis.

Idolatry

An Istory

by Sherman Alexie

Marie waited for hours. That was okay. She was Indian, and everything Indian—powwows, funerals, and weddings—required patience. This audition wasn’t Indian, but she was ready when they called her name.

“What are you going to sing?” the British man asked.

“ ‘Every Reservation Girl Loves Patsy Cline,’ ” she said.

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