Tommy Orange

Tommy Orange is an American author of Cheyenne and Arapaho descent. Born in Oakland, California, in 1982, he is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he later taught before joining the creative writing faculty at Arizona State University. His debut novel There There (2018) is a polyphonic novel following twelve Native American characters whose lives converge at an Oakland powwow that ends in violence. The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, won the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction in 2019, and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, among many other awards. It is widely regarded as one of the most significant American debut novels of the past decade. Orange's second novel Wandering Stars (2024) is a sequel to There There and continues his investigation of Indigenous experience in contemporary America. He is recognised as a major voice in Native American literature and in American fiction more broadly. He lives in the Bay Area, California.