This profile of Tommy Orange in the Guardian is worth your time. I haven’t read Wandering Stars yet, but There There has stuck with me since I first read it in 2020.

Orange, born in Oakland, California in 1982, is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Members of his tribe, he discovered, were held as prisoners in a Florida jail that became the blueprint for the notorious “boarding schools” in which Native children were forcibly assimilated into white culture.

He could be talking about Canada’s residential schools here too:

[American military officer Richard Henry Pratt ] thought it was so effective to put these prisoners through military training and teach them Christianity and English,” Orange explains over Zoom from his home in Oakland, California, “that he decided it was a good idea to try to do it to all Native children in the country, and start up these boarding schools everywhere. 

He talks about addiction and generational trauma, his own literary inspirations, and what to expect from him: a screenplay, some music (!) and a third novel. There are several recommendations for further reading too. Check it out.

Now if my hold of Wandering Stars ever comes in at the library….