Writer, speaker and educator Diane Wilson is the featured guest for NCW Libraries' next Virtual Reads planned for 7 p.m. Thursday. Register at ncwlibraries.org/ncwreadsto take part in the virtual event.
Wilson has published essays, non-fiction, memoir, a fictional novel and now a picture book. She will present online from her newest published work, the 2021 full-length fictional novel “The Seed Keeper.”
Wilson, 67, from rural Minnesota, is a Mdewakanton tribe descendent who is enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation.
She said in a phone interview that the most significant part of her Seed Keeper story is "listening to the voices of four Dakota women from different time periods and across generations as they work to protect their traditional way of life, partly in relationship with seeds and land and indigenous foods.
Inspiration and research for this novel comes in part from Wilson’s work as executive director for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance coalition and Dream of Wild Health. As a gardener, she also spoke of the seeds themselves being “beautiful, resilient and fragile, with so much to give in terms of food and medicine.”
The novel "The Seed Keeper" and her memoir, “Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past” (Borealis Books) both won a Minnesota Book Award. The 2022 picture book “Where We Come From” is co-written as an individual and diverse story for all, showing kids how to honor and respect each other's stories. Recent essays in anthologies include “Making Relatives” and “We are Meant to Rise.”
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