David Heska Wanbli Weiden, an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation, is author of the novel, Winter Counts (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020), nominated for the 2021 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, as well as the Anthony, Lefty, Barry, Thriller, Macavity, Shamus, Hammett Prize, VCU Cabell, Reading the West, High Plains, and Colorado Book Award. The book was the winner of the 2021 Spur Award for Best Contemporary Novel, the Lefty Award for Best Debut Novel, and the Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing. Weiden is also the author of the children’s book, (Reycraft, 2019), a biography of the great Lakota leader and winner of the 2020 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. He’s published work in the New York Times, Shenandoah, Yellow Medicine Review, Transmotion, Criminal Class Review, Tribal College Journal, and other magazines. He teaches creative writing at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, the low-residency MFA program at Regis University, and was visiting faculty at the MFA program in Writing and Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He received his MFA in Creative Writing 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 was a Tin House Scholar, MacDowell Fellow, Ragdale Foundation resident, VONA alumnus, and received the 2018 PEN/America Writing for Justice Fellowship. He’s an active member of the Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Western Writers of America, and the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers. He’s Professor of Native American Studies and Political Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and lives in Colorado with his family.
