Anna Lee Walters is an award-winning Pawnee/Otoe

Otoe tribe

The Otoe or Oto are a Native American people. The Otoe language, Chiwere, is part of the Siouan family and closely related to that of the related Iowa and Missouri tribes.-History:...

-Missouria

Missouri tribe

The Missouria or Missouri are a Native American tribe that originated in the Great Lakes region of United States before European contact. The tribe belongs to the Chiwere division of the Siouan language family, together with the Iowa and Otoe...

 author from Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

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Career

Walters works at the Diné College

Diné College

Diné College is a two-year, tribally controlled community college, serving the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Indian Reservation, which spans the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah....

 in Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, where she directs the college press. She lives in Tsaile, Arizona

Tsaile, Arizona

Tsaile is a census-designated place in Apache County, Arizona, United States, within the Navajo Nation. The population was 1,078 at the 2000 census....

 with her husband Harry Walters. He is the former Director of the Museum at Diné College.

Her first novel, Ghost Singer (1994) is a two-level mystery: one relates to the suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 of researchers at the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

, which is attributed to ghosts related to Indian artifact (archeology)s; the other is that of how American Indians understand their position related to their ancestry and culture. Turning the genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

 on its head, Walters "solves" only the second mystery.

Her short story collection

Short story collection

A short story collection is a book of short stories by a single author, as distinguished by an anthology of fiction by more than one author. The stories in a collection can share a theme, setting, or characters and sometimes can also include work of poetry. Notable collections include Nine Stories...

, The Sun Is Not Merciful, won the Before Columbus Foundation

Before Columbus Foundation

The Before Columbus Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by Ishmael Reed, Victor Hernández Cruz, Shawn Wong and Rudolfo Anaya to be "a multi-ethnic organizing dedicated to promoting a pan-cultural view of America," especially through the promotion of multicultural writers.One of...

 1985 American Book Award

American Book Award

The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...

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See also

• List of Native American writers