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"From the award-winning author of Perma Red comes a devastatingly beautiful novel that challenges prevailing historical narratives of Sacajewea"--
About the author
Debra Magpie Earling is the author of
Perma Red and
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea. An earlier version of the latter, written in verse, was produced as an artist book during the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. She has received both a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is retired from the University of Montana, where she was named professor emeritus in 2021. She is Bitterroot Salish.
Summary
Winner of the Montana Book Award
Winner of the PNBA Book Award
“In my seventh winter, when my head only reached my Appe’s rib, a White Man came into camp. Bare trees scratched sky. Cold was endless. He moved through trees like strikes of sunlight. My Bia said he came with bad intentions, like a Water Baby’s cry.”
Among the most memorialized women in American history, Sacajewea served as interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery. In this visionary novel, acclaimed Indigenous author Debra Magpie Earling brings this mythologized figure vividly to life, casting unsparing light on the men who brutalized her and recentering Sacajewea as the arbiter of her own history.
Here, the young Sacajewea is bright and bold, growing strong from the hard work of “learning all ways to survive.” When her village is raided, Sacajewea is kidnapped and then gambled away to Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper. Heavy with grief, she learns how to survive at the edge of a strange new world. When Lewis and Clark’s expedition party arrives, Sacajewea knows she must cross a vast and brutal terrain with her newborn son, the white man who owns her, and a company of men who wish to conquer and commodify the world she loves.
Written in lyrical, dreamlike prose, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea is an astonishing work of art and a powerful tale of perseverance—the Indigenous woman’s story that hasn’t been told.
Foreword
- Major advertising campaign with Bookshop.org, Edelweiss, Goodreads, Google Sponsored Search, MPIBA, MIBA and PNBA
- Bookseller send to key accounts and influential booksellers building on connections developed by author’s appearance at Winter Institute in 2023 and through hardcover Indie Next promotion
- Major publicity outreach focused on regional, paperback-release and Indigenous outlets, positioning the book as one of the most original and important contemporary works of fiction
- Major academic campaign to 100K educators, positioning the title as a competitive candidate for Common Read programs
- Ongoing ebook promotions with focus on Indigenous Heritage Month (October) and Native American History Month (November)
- Email marketing promotion via the publisher to readers, sales and academic lists of more than 65K subscribers
- Paperback release event in Missoula, MT and in Minneapolis, MN, and an appearance at Virginia Festival of the Book
