Debra Magpie Earling

Updated on Oct 06, 2024

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Ethnicity Bitterroot Salish Name Debra Earling		Role Novelist Books Perma Red, Louise

Born August 3, 1957 (age 67) Spokane, Washington ( 1957-08-03 ) Occupation Novelist, short story writer, University of Montana English professor Alma mater University of Washington ; MA in English, MFA in Fiction Writing, Cornell University Education Cornell University (1992), University of Washington Awards American Book Awards

Debra Cecille Magpie Earling (born August 3, 1957 Spokane, Washington) is a Native American novelist, and short story writer. She is the author of Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea, which was on display at the Missoula Museum of Art in late 2011. Her work has also appeared in Ploughshares and the Northeast Indian Quarterly.

Debra Magpie Earling Debra Magpie Earling on Becoming a Writer Gemini Ink

Life

She is of the Bitterroot Salish (tribe).

She is a graduate of the University of Washington, and holds both an MA in English and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Cornell University.

Earling is currently a faculty member in the English Department at the University of Montana at Missoula.

Awards

2007 Guggenheim Fellow

2003 American Book Award

2006 NEA grant

Works

Perma Red. BlueHen Books. 2002. ISBN 978-0-399-14899-6.

The Lost Journals of Sacajewea. Editions Koch. 2010.

Anthologies

William Kittredge, Annick Smith, eds. (1991). The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-96974-9. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)

Craig Lesley, Katheryn Stavrakis, eds. (1991). Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories. Delta. ISBN 978-0-385-31272-1. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)

Kim Barnes, Mary Clearman Blew, eds. (2001). Circle of Women: Anthology of Western Women Writers. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3367-6. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)

Sue Thomas, ed. (1994). Wild women: contemporary short stories by women celebrating women. Overlook Press. ISBN 978-0-87951-514-0.

Caroline Patterson, ed. (2006). "Bad Ways". Montana Women Writers: A Geography of the Heart. Farcountry Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-1-56037-405-3. Retrieved 2015-01-05.

Allen Morris Jones, William Kittredge, eds. (2004). "Real Indians". The Best of Montana's Short Fiction. Globe Pequot. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-59228-269-2. Retrieved 2015-01-05. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)

Alvin M. Josephy, ed. (2007). "What We See". Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes. Random House, Inc. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-4000-7749-6. Retrieved 2015-01-05.

Reviews

Debra Magpie Earling's debut novel Perma Red is something of a miracle. The University of Montana creative writing professor began writing it in 1984 and, over the years, it has been through at least nine different rewrites, trimmed from an epic-length 800 pages to a compact 288, burned to a crisp in a house fire, and rejected by publishers who loved the writing but thought the original ending too dark and brutal. Through it all, Earling persevered and the novel stands as a testament to her faith and patience.

References

Debra Magpie Earling Wikipedia

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