Angeline Boulley, author of “Firekeeper’s Daughter” and “Warrior Girl Unearthed,” will speak Monday, October 23 at the Vicksburg Performing Arts Center.
Pre-registration is required but there is no cost for the 6 p.m. event.
“Firekeeper’s Daughter” quickly became a #1 New York Times bestseller. It’s been selected as the Great Michigan Read for 2023 and has won the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature, the Printz Award, the William C. Morris Award for YA debut literature, and was also an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book.
“The ability to host a prominent author like Angeline Boulley is the result of a strong community partnership with the Vicksburg District Library and local independent bookstore, Gilbert and Ivy,” said Syd Bastos, interim executive director of the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center. “We see her books as the perfect complement to the Center’s Destinations Series which is focusing this year on indigenous nations.”
Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island.
Seats may be reserved by registering at: the Vicksburg District Library, 215 S. Michigan St.; (269) 649-1648; Gilbert and Ivy, 111 West Prairie St. (269) 475-5747; or online at https://tinyurl.com/ABauthorvisit.
Copies of both “Firekeeper’s Daughter” and “Warrior Girl Unearthed” will be available for purchase and signing during the event. Advanced copies can be reserved during the registration process or at Gilbert and Ivy located at 111 West Prairie Street in Vicksburg, Michigan.
For more information on the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center Destinations Series events: https://www.vicksburgarts.com/destination-series
For more information on the Great Michigan Read Book Clubs hosted by the Vicksburg District Library: https://www.vicksburgarts.com/_files/ugd/5ddd11_1d9a526d9c6a45119eb90b8e45e0a30d.pdf
The event is presented to the community by: Gilbert and Ivy, The Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center and Vicksburg District Library. This project is funded in part by Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In “The Firekeeper’s Daughter,” Daunis Fontaine, a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother’s hockey team.
Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.
Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.
Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.