drinking coffee elsewhere (2013) • there there (2018) •
Tommy Orange, born in 1982 in Oakland, California, is a Cheyenne and Arapaho novelist whose work explores Native identity, urban Indigenous experiences, and the lasting impacts of colonialism. He grew up in Oakland and did not initially plan to become a writer, working instead in music and sports before pursuing creative writing. Orange earned an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he developed the manuscript for his debut novel. Deeply connected to his heritage and community, his writing often bridges personal history with broader cultural narratives, reflecting both contemporary Native life and the weight of historical trauma.
In 2018, Orange published his first novel, There There, which became a critical and commercial success, earning a Pulitzer Prize finalist spot, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the American Book Award, among other honors. Praised for its polyphonic style and unflinching honesty, the novel follows twelve interconnected Native characters living in Oakland as they converge on a powwow, illuminating the complexities of modern Indigenous identity. In 2024, Orange released his second novel, Wandering Stars, a multigenerational narrative that delves into the origins of the characters from There There while exploring themes of survival, resilience, and cultural continuity. His work has firmly established him as a leading voice in contemporary American literature, celebrated for both its literary artistry and its urgent social insight.
Tommy Orange’s last published work before his Future Library handover is his debut novel, There There (2018).
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Title: There There
Author: Tommy Orange
First Published: 2018, Alfred A. Knopf
Present Library Copy: Signed First Edition, Alfred A. Knopf, 2018
Language: English
Genre: Literary Fiction around contemporary realism with social commentary
Place of Writing: Oakland, California (early 2010s - 2018)
Pages: 294
ISBN: 978-0-525-52037-5
Notes | Fierce, angry, funny, heartbreaking—Tommy Orange’s first novel is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen, and it introduces a brilliant new author at the start of a major career.
There There is a relentlessly paced multigenerational story about violence and recovery, memory and identity, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. it tells the story of twelve characters, each of whom has private reasons for travelling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Jacquie Red Feather is newly soberand trying to make it back to the familyshe left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle’s death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle’s memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pagentry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism and unspeakable loss.
Here is a voice we have never heard—a voice full of poetry and range, exploding onto the page with stunning urgency and force. Tommy Orange writes of the plight of the urban Native American, the Native American in the city, in a stunning novel that grapples with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and profound spirituality, and with a plague of addiction, abuse, and suicide. An unforgettable debut, destined to become required reading in schools and universities across the country.
“A gripping deep dive into urban indigenous community in California: an astonishing literary debut”
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood