For a country comprised of less than one percent of its indigenous people, Native American author and filmmaker Sherman Alexie's voice is crucially important. But he'd be damned if it weren't funny too. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, Alexie has focused exclusively on exploring and reworking readers' perceptions of reservation life in his 18 collections of fiction and his hit 1998 film Smoke Signals. While always engaged with meaty subject manner, Alexie's freshness stems from his wit and silliness. His most recent effort, the National Book Award-winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, provides a semi-autobiographical tale of his youthful exploits and serves as tonight's main talking point.