Born: 1966, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Angeline Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, started as a spark of an idea in her own adolescence, but she didn’t begin writing the coming-of-age thriller until she was 44. As she put it, “My great idea came at 18. Then, three kids, career, life, etcetera.” Even then, it was another decade until she secured an agent and a publishing deal. “I just wanted to write this Indigenous Nancy Drew story that I wished I had read when I was a teen,” said Boulley, who is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
In addition to becoming a New York Times #1 bestseller, it was soon announced the book would be adapted for Netflix by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground. A follow-up, Warrior Girl Unearthed, was published in 2023. “I hope that people come away with a new understanding about Native identity and the importance of young people having representation in the stories that they read,” Boulley has said. “There simply are too few stories told by and about Indigenous girls and women, especially from a contemporary viewpoint.”
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She is a former director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Boulley lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island, Michigan. Her debut novel, “Firekeeper’s Daughter,” received many awards, including a Michael L. Printz Award, William C. Morris Award, Walter Dean Myers Award and an American Indian Youth Literature Honor. Her newest release, “Warrior Girl Unearthed,” will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.