David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Professor

Department of English and the Native American and Indigenous Studies program

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin

M.F.A., Institute of American Indian Arts

J.D., University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Native American literature; creative writing; fiction; creative nonfiction; Indigenous studies; ethnic studies; law and politics

Humanities 2088

david.weiden@stonybrook.edu

• Biography

  biography

  David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation, is the author of the novel Winter Counts (Ecco/HarperCollins), nominated for an Edgar Award, and winner of the Anthony, Thriller, Lefty, Barry, Macavity, Spur, and High Plains Awards as well as the Electa Quinney Award from the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures. The novel was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Indie Next pick, main selection of the Book of the Month Club, and named as a best book of the year by numerous publications. The novel was translated into five languages and named by Time magazine as one of the 100 best mystery and thriller novels of all time. He has short stories in the anthologies The Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories, Never Whistle at Night, Crimes Against Nature, and others. He’s the editor of the anthology Native Noir (Akashic Books), and is the editor of Native Edge, a new series of the University of New Mexico Press specializing in Indigenous literature.

  His scholarship and nonfiction have been published by the New York Times, New York University Press, Cambridge University Press, and other outlets. In 2024, he was Indigenous Artist in Residence at Brown University and has received fellowships from PEN America, MacDowell, Ucross, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee, and Tin House. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, his law degree from the University of Denver, and his MFA degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts. For more information, see his website at davidweiden.com.