Darcie Little Badger Explained

Darcie Little Badger
Occupation:Author
Nationality:American
Education:Princeton University (BA)
Texas A&M University (PhD)
Subjects:-->
Notable Works:Elatsoe (2020)
A Snake Falls to Earth (2021)
Partners:-->

Darcie Little Badger (born 1987) is an American novelist, short story writer, and Earth scientist.

As an author, Little Badger specializes in speculative fiction, especially horror, science fiction, and fantasy. She is a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas.[1] She develops her stories with Apache characters and themes. She has also added her voice to Indigenous Futurism, a movement among Native artists and authors to write science fiction from their historical and cultural perspectives. At the same time, some of her works feature characters who reconfirm the presence and importance of LGBTQ+ community members.

Early life and education

Darcie Little Badger was born Darcie Erin Ryan to Patrick Ryan, an English professor, and Hermelinda Walking Woman, the webmaster of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas.[2] [3] At age seven she wrote her first book, which was submitted for publication with her father's help and politely rejected.[4] [5] Throughout her childhood Little Badger moved due to her father's job, but considered Texas to be her home.

After graduating from Pleasant Grove High School in Texarkana, Texas, Little Badger adopted her current surname, as per Lipan tradition. She attended Princeton University in New Jersey, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Geosciences after being rejected twice from the school's creative writing program. Little Badger graduated cum laude in 2010[6] and was honored by her department with the Arthur F. Buddington Award for Overall Excellence as an undergraduate student.

She subsequently enrolled in the doctoral program in oceanography at Texas A&M University, College Station, where she earned a Ph.D. She wrote her dissertation on the genomics of Karenia brevis, a species of plankton that causes toxic red tide in the Gulf of Mexico. For her research, she received a Ford Dissertation Fellowship[7] and TAMU's Chapman Award for Graduate Student Research, both under the name Darcie Ryan.[8]

Scientific career

After graduating from Texas A&M, Little Badger took a job as an editor of scientific papers. She quit this job after selling her first novel, Elatsoe (2020, wanting to divert all her energy into writing.

Writing career

Short fiction and Apache influence

Little Badger's short fiction has appeared in a range of publications, including Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, Mythic Delirium, and The Dark Magazine, among others.[9] [10] Notably, Little Badger enriches her short stories with Apache history and lore. For example, two Apache sisters reunite in "Whalebone Parrot"[11] (The Dark Magazine, 2017), a Victorian horror story set in the late 19th century on an island in the Atlantic. During the conflict between their tribe and the U.S. Army, the women were orphaned and grew up together in a residential "Indian school". Thus, as Little Badger notes, her story is rooted in Lipan Apache history, a history that "few remember". Similarly, in "Owl vs. the Neighborhood Watch"[12] (Strange Horizons, 2017), she revives Native legend when she places Owl, a shapeshifting supernatural harbinger of evil, in a story set in contemporary Appalachia.

Novels

Little Badger began writing her debut novel, Elatsoe,[13] in 2017. She sold the manuscript in late 2018. It was published in August 2020 by Levine Querido, and made the Indibound Young Adult bestseller list in its first week.[14] The story is set in modern-day Texas; the main character Ellie is a seventeen-year-old asexual Lipan Apache teen. Ellie is accompanied by the ghost of her pet dog Kirby; she used her grandmothers' traditional techniques to bring him back to life. Kirby and Ellie are joined by Ellie's friend and classmate Jay as they work to solve the murder of her cousin. At the same time, they confront an enclave of vampires plaguing people near Willowbee, a mysterious town in South Texas.[15] [16] [17]

Little Badger began writing her second novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, in early 2020. It was released in November 2021, also through Levine Querido. The story focuses on Nina, a Lipan Apache girl trying to learn about her recently deceased grandmother, who meets a cottonmouth snake named Oli. The setting shifts between near-future Texas and a fantasy dimension, from which Oli originates.[18] Climate change plays a pivotal role in the story's plot.

Indigenous futurism

Indigenous Futurism is a growing movement in the arts and literature in which Native writers create science fiction and fantasy with characters and themes drawn from indigenous cultures.[19] [20] With much of her science fiction, Little Badger has contributed to this movement.[21] [22] In Strangelands, for example, Little Badger introduces an Apache comic book superhero. In her short story "Né łe!"[23] the main characters are a Navajo interplanetary ship's captain and a Lipan Apache veterinarian accompanying 40 chihuahuas on their way to forever homes on Mars.

Community organizing

Little Badger serves as a delegate for the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas to the National Congress of American Indians.[24] She also serves as a science advisor to the tribe.

Little Badger was one of the plaintiffs in civil action against the U.S. Department of Interior where the plaintiffs sought to use eagle feathers in their ceremonies without fear of prosecution, protection which after 2012 was only extended to members of federally recognized tribes by the U.S. Department of Interior.[25]

In 2014, the litigants won the case with a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.[26] [27] The 5th Circ. acknowledged the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas as an American Indian Tribe with a long history in Texas.[28]

In a settlement between the plaintiffs and the Interior Department, the Interior Department accepted the American Indian status of the plaintiffs who were not members of a federally recognized tribe and granted them lifetime permits to "possess, carry, use, wear, give, loan, or exchange among other Indians, without compensation, all federally protected birds, as well as their parts or feathers" for their "Indian religious use".[29] [30]

On November 30, 2021, Little Badger was one of her Tribe’s representatives who traveled to Presidio, Texas, to attend and participate as a speaker in a Lipan traditional ceremony celebrating the city of Presidio and Presidio County’s transfer of a historical Lipan cemetery back to the her Tribe. The celebration, rooted in Lipan Apache traditional songs, prayers, and the Lipan language, focused on the local Presidio community’s return of many sentinel stones that had been taken from Lipan gravesites throughout the years. During the ceremony, Little Badger used her knowledge as a geoscientist to express her Lipan people’s "endurance and strength" through their connection to the land and rocks around the burial site.[31] [32]

Personal life

Little Badger is asexual. In 2021, she was living in San Marcos, Texas.

Awards and honors

For Elatsoe

For A Snake Falls to Earth

Published works

Novels

Short fiction

YearTitlePublicationISBN
2014"First Ride of the Day"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2014 . First Ride of the Day . Vignettes from the End of the World . Apokrupha.
"Siren Son"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . May 2014 . 2014 . Siren Song . Dark Eclipse . 34.
"Nkásht íí"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . Dec 15, 2014 . 2014 . Nkásht íí . .
2015""Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2015 . The Sea Under Texas . Quantum Fairy Tales . 11.
"The Girl Turns West"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . Summer 2015 . 2015 . The Sea Under Texas . Mirror Dance . 30.
"When Whales Fall"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . Autumn 2015 . When Whales Fall . The Colored Lens.
2016"Né łe!"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2016 . Né Łe! . Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time.
"Black, Their Regalia"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . Dec 2016 . 2016 . Black, Their Regalia . . 60.
"Their Laughing Gal"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2016 . Spirit's Tincture . Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time.
2017"Skinwalker, Fast-Talker"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2017 . Skinwalker, Fast-Talker . No Shit, There I Was.
"Owl vs. The Neighborhood Watch" Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . Jul 10, 2017 . 2017 . Owl vs. the Neighborhood Watch . .
""Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . Oct 2017 . 2017 . The Whalebone Parrot . The Dark . 29.
2019"Kelsey and the Burdened Breath"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2019 . Kelsey and the Burdened Breath . New Suns . Solaris.
"Robo-Liopleurodon!"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2019 . Robo-Liopleurodon . The New Voices of Science Fiction . Tachyon.
"Homecoming"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2019 . Homecoming . Take the Mic: Fictional Stories . Scholastic Publishing.
"Grace"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2019 . Grace . Take the Mic: Fictional Stories . Scholastic Publishing.
"Story for a Bottle"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2019 . Story for a Bottle . Love After the End . Bedside Press.
2020"Unlike Most Tides"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2020 . Unlike Most Tides . Drabblecast . 425.
"Venom and Bite"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2020 . Venom and Bite . Glitter + Ashes . Neon Hemlock Press.
""Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2020 . Adams . John Joseph . John Joseph Adams . Howey . Hugh . Hugh Howey . Yant . Christine . The Orphan of Greenridge (Water) . The Dystopia Triptych #1 . Self-published.
"How to Use Your Visor (Fire)"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2020 . Adams . John Joseph . John Joseph Adams . Howey . Hugh . Hugh Howey . Yant . Christine . How to Use Your Visor (Fire) . The Dystopia Triptych #1 . Self-published.
"Making Faces (Earth)"Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2020 . Adams . John Joseph . John Joseph Adams . Howey . Hugh . Hugh Howey . Yant . Christine . Making Faces (Earth) . The Dystopia Triptych #1 . Self-published.
2022""Little Badger . Darcie . 2 . 2022 . The Dancers . Jim Henson's the Storyteller: Shapeshifters #2 . Boom! Studios.
2023"The Scientist's Horror Story" (2023). The Scientist's Horror Story". Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction AnthologyISBN 9780593468463

Nonfiction

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Solomon . Dan . Darcie Little Badger’s Engrossing New Novel Blends Lipan Apache Folklore and Oceanography . 16 December 2023 . Texas Monthly . 13 December 2021.
  2. Web site: Salas . Maria . August 16, 2022 . Aggie Author Blends Science Background With Passion For Writing . 26 November 2022 . Texas A&M Today . Texas A&M University.
  3. Web site: Walking Woman . Hermelinda . webmaster . Lipan Apache Tribe: Tribal Council Contact . November 25, 2022.
  4. Web site: Solomon . Dan . 2021-12-13 . Darcie Little Badger's Engrossing New Novel Blends Lipan Apache Folklore and Oceanography . 2023-06-04 . Texas Monthly . en.
  5. 2021-10-29 . Darcie Little Badger Turns Our Darkest Realities Into Hopeful Fantasies . 2023-06-04 . Time . en.
  6. Web site: 2021-12-28 . Darcie Little Badger '10 Weaves Lipan Apache Storytelling into Novels . 2023-06-05 . Princeton Alumni Weekly . en.
  7. Web site: Dissertation Completion in 2015 Ford Foundation Fellowships Scholar Award List . Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs . The National Academies of Science, Engineering, & Medicine . July 10, 2020.
  8. Web site: Oceanography Student Award Recipients . Texas A&M College of Geosciences News . Texas A&M University . July 10, 2020.
  9. Web site: Fiction: Black Their Regalia . Fantasy Magazine . 19 December 2016 . 4 December 2022.
  10. Web site: The Famine King . Featured Story February 2017 . Mythic Delirium Books . 4 December 2022.
  11. Little Badger . Darcie . Whalebone Parrot . The Dark Magazine . October 2017 . 29 . 9 July 2020.
  12. Little Badger . Darcie . Owl vs. the Neighborhood Watch . Strange Horizons . 10 July 2017 . 10 July 2017 . 9 July 2020.
  13. Book: Little Badger . Darcie . Elatsoe . Aug 25, 2020 . Levine Querido . New York . 9781646140053.
  14. Web site: IndieBound Bestseller list for 9-2-2020 . American Booksellers Association . September 6, 2020.
  15. Web site: Elatsoe . Kirkus Reviews . Kirkus Media LLC . July 10, 2020.
  16. Web site: YA Book, Elatsoe By Darcie Little Badger: About the Author . Lipan Apache Tribe Literature Page . Lipan Apache Tribe Tribal Council . 15 July 2020 . 15 July 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200715160323/http://www.lipanapache.org/Literature/Darcie_Little_Badger.html . dead .
  17. Web site: A Q&A Between Darcie Little Badger and André-Naquian Wheeler . 2023-06-04 . Levine Querido . en-US.
  18. News: November 21, 2021 . A teenage girl finds an ally on her life journey when 'A Snake Falls to Earth' . NPR . 4 June 2023.
  19. Book: Nixon . Lindsay . 2020. King . Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blakness. Duke University Press. 332–342. Chapter Eighteen: Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurism. Durham and London . 978-1-478-00838-5.
  20. Siepak . Julia . Dimensions of Decolonial Future in Contemporary Indigenous Speculative Fiction . Anglica . 2020 . 1 . 57–74 . 10.7311/0860-5734.29.1.04 . 4 August 2021. free .
  21. Heartfield . Kate . Decolonizing the future: How a new generation of Indigenous writers is changing science fiction . Article Magazine . December 1, 2016 . 4 August 2021.
  22. Ph.D. . Selena . Middleton . Green Cosmic Dreams: Utopia and Ecological Exile in Women's Explanetary Science Fiction . McMaster University . 2019.
  23. Book: Little Badger . Darcie . Né łe! in Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time . 2016 . Beds de Press . 978-0993997075 . 60–76.
  24. Web site: YA Book, Elatsoe By Darcie Little Badger . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20220519082410/http://www.lipanapache.org/Literature/Darcie_Little_Badger.html . 19 May 2022 . 15 July 2020 . Lipan Apache Tribe Literature Page . Lipan Apache Tribe Tribal Council.
  25. Web site: Lipan Apache Legal Victory for Native American Religious Freedom! . 27 August 2014.
  26. Web site: McAllen Grace Brethren Church v. Salazar . Georgia Municipal Association . Court . Clerk . August 20, 2014 . July 24, 2019.
  27. Web site: McALLEN GRACE BRETHREN CHURCH v. SALAZAR · No. 13-40326. . Leagle . Court . Clerk . August 20, 2014 . July 24, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190725101026/https://www.leagle.com/decision/infco20140820107 . July 25, 2019 . live .
  28. Web site: Smith, Adair Martin . Native American Use of Eagle Feathers under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act . scholarship.law.uc.edu . 20 December 2018.
  29. Web site: The religious freedom restoration act and indian law . University Of Arizona . 29 June 2019.
  30. Web site: Settlement Agreement at 3-4, McAllen Grace Brethren Church v. Jewell, No. 7:07-cv-60 (S.D. Tex. June 13, 2016) . Court House News . 3 May 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210213234500/https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/feather-petition.pdf . 13 February 2021.
  31. Web site: Sam Karas . Celebration, reunion as Lipan Apache tribal council travels to Presidio from McAllen for special ceremony . Big Bend Sentinel . 1 December 2021.
  32. Web site: Annie Rosenthal . Lipan Apache tribal members gather in Presidio to celebrate historic land transfer . Marfa Public Radio . 30 November 2021.
  33. Web site: Whippoorwill Book Award Winners 2021-2022. KPL.gov . 26 August 2022 . Kamalazoo Public Library . 18 September 2022.
  34. Web site: American Library Association announces 2022 Youth Media Award winners. ALA News . 24 January 2022 . American Library Association . 19 February 2022.
  35. Web site: 2021 Locus Awards Winners . Locus . 26 June 2021 . Locus Publications . 12 July 2021.
  36. Web site: 2021 Hugo Awards . The Hugo Awards: The Official Site of the Hugo Awards . January 2021 . World Science Fiction Society . 14 April 2021.
  37. Web site: Nebula Awards-Announcing the 2020 Nebula Awards Finalists . 15 March 2021 . Tor.com . Macmillan . 10 March 2022.
  38. Web site: Global Read Aloud Choice 2021: Young Adult . The Global Read Aloud Blog . GRA . 16 March 2021.
  39. Web site: Elatsoe, Lavine Querido . 2021 Golden Kite Awards . 22 February 2021 . Waking Brain Cells . 24 February 2021.
  40. News: Bestseller List for September 2, 2020 . The American Booksellers Association. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
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  42. Web site: Bestseller List for November 4, 2020 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
  43. Web site: Bestseller List for November 11, 2020 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
  44. Web site: Bestseller List for December 2, 2020 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
  45. Web site: Bestseller List for December 9, 2020 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
  46. Web site: Bestseller List for December 23, 2020 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
  47. Web site: Bestseller List for December 30, 2020 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
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  50. Web site: Bestseller List for January 20, 2021 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
  51. Web site: Bestseller List for January 27, 2021 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
  52. Web site: Pacific Northwest Indie Bestseller List, December 20, 2020 . American Booksellers Assoc. American Booksellers Association.BookWeb . 24 February 2021.
  53. 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger . . 24 February 2021.
  54. Web site: NPR's Book Concierge 2020 . NPR Books. NPR . 24 February 2021.
  55. Web site: Best Books of 2020: Young Adult . BookPage. 10 November 2020 . BookPage and ProMotion, Inc. . 24 February 2021.
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  59. Web site: Shelf Awareness for Readers for Tuesday, November 24, 2020: From My Shelf-Shelf Awareness's Best Children's & Teen Books of 2020 . Shelf Awareness for Readers. Shelf Awareness . 24 February 2021.
  60. Web site: 2020 NECB Windows & Mirrors List . New England Independent Booksellers Association. NEIBA . 24 February 2021.
  61. Web site: NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARDS: 2020 Finalist . New England Independent Booksellers Association. NEIBA . 24 February 2021.
  62. Web site: Best of 2020: Best Young Adult Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror of 2020 . TOR.COM. 9 December 2020 . Macmillan . 24 February 2021.
  63. Web site: Best of 2020: Our Favorite YA Books . KIRKUS . Kirkus Media . 24 February 2021.
  64. Web site: Announcing the Winners of the 2022 Ignyte Awards! . TOR.com . 17 September 2022 . 18 September 2022.
  65. Web site: Announcing the Shortlist for the Inaugural Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction . Electricliterature.com . 28 July 2022 . Electric Lit . 18 September 2022.
  66. SFWA Announces the Winners of the 57th Annual Nebula Awards® . . May 21, 2022 . May 22, 2022.
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  70. Web site: 2021 Finalist . Los Angeles Times Book Prizes . Los Angeles Times Festival of Books . 30 April 2022.
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  81. Web site: Best of 2021: Our Favorite YA Books . KIRKUS . Kirkus Media . 31 December 2021.
  82. Web site: Best of 2021 . TOR.COM. 7 December 2021 . Macmillan . 31 December 2021.
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  84. Web site: Best Books of 2021 . Chicago Public Library. Chicago Public Library Foundation . 31 December 2021.

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