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David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is the author of the award-winning crime thriller novel Winter Counts (Ecco, 2020). The novel was a national bestseller, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named a Best Book of the year by NPR, Amazon Best Book of 2020/Best Mystery and Thriller of the year, and Best Book of the year by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The Guardian, and other magazines. Weiden was named by the New York Times as one of “the most critically acclaimed young novelists working now.” Winter Counts was called a “once-in-a-generation thriller” by the Los Angeles Times, a “worthy addition to the burgeoning canon of indigenous literature” by Library Journal, and one of the “best crime novels of all time” by Parade magazine. Winter Counts was also selected as CrimeReads Best Noir Fiction, Best Debut, and Notable Selection for Best Crime Novel.
Weiden has short stories appearing or forthcoming in the anthologies The Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories 2022, Denver Noir, Midnight Hour, This Time for Sure, Never Whistle at Night, and The Perfect Crime. His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, Shenandoah, and Writer’s Digest. He’s the series editor of Native Edge, an imprint of the University of New Mexico Press specializing in Indigenous literature. Weiden received the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship and is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from MacDowell, Ucross, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee, and Tin House.
Weiden received his MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, his law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He’s professor of Native American studies and Political Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver and serves on the faculty of the Cedar Crest Pan-European MFA Program and also the Mile-High MFA Program at Regis University.
