Angeline
Bestselling Young Adult Novelist
Printz Medal & Morris Award Winner
Travels from: Chicago, IL

“From the moment she arrived, Angeline Boulley brought her bright star magic to the theater and event!” — Sturges-Young Center for the Arts

Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island. Angeline was born into story-telling people, and was was first introduced to the art through generational oral tradition. Yet during her childhood, Angeline struggled with her biracial indigenous identity. In searching for representation through the stories in books she was reading, she realized that the examples she found lacked depth and true experience. It wasn’t until her mid-forties that she realized she could write her own experience into existence.

Firekeeper’s Daughter is her debut novel, and was an instant #1 NYT Bestseller. The book has been named the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature, the Printz Award, the William C. Morris award for YA debut literature, and was an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book. Called an “indiginous Nancy Drew” the central character is Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community after witnessing a shocking murder.

Her second novel, Warrior Girl Unearthed, was published in 2023 and was an instant New York Times and Indies Bestseller. This novel takes us back to Sugar Island, and is a high stakes thriller about the power of discovering your stolen history.

Angeline's Featured Titles

Warrior Girl Unearthed

Henry Holt and Co. |
Fiction

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter Angeline Boulley takes us back to Sugar Island in this high-stakes thriller about the power of discovering your stolen history.

Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is – the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won’t ever take her far from home, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.

In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot – will not – stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.

Sometimes, the truth shouldn’t stay buried.

Firekeeper’s Daughter

Henry Holt and Co. |
Young Adult Fiction

A PRINTZ MEDAL WINNER!
A MORRIS AWARD WINNER!
AN AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH LITERATURE AWARD YA HONOR BOOK!

A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK

An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground.

“One of this year’s most buzzed about young adult novels.” —Good Morning America

A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time Selection
Amazon’s Best YA Book of 2021 So Far (June 2021)
A 2021 Kids’ Indie Next List Selection
An Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection
A PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection

With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, perfect for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange.

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.

Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.

Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.

Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

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Being the Hero of our Own Stories

An interactive session for students in grades 6-12 including an overview and comparative analysis of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth in popular literature and film. Angeline introduces an Indigenous framework for the Hero’s Journey through Medicine Wheel teachings from her Ojibwe community. Students are encouraged to explore storytelling from their own family traditions and cultural backgrounds.

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The Art, Craft, and Business of Storytelling

Angeline facilitates an interactive workshop for aspiring writers. The Art segment introduces the power of storytelling to impact our lives and explores the concept of “Voice” in writing. The Craft segment focuses on storytelling arcs, character goals, point of view, and conflict. The Business segment covers literary agent representations, book deals, the use of social media, and the writer-entrepreneur.

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Stories are Good Medicine

In Anishinaabek (Indigenous) communities, traditional firekeepers not only strike and tend fires at ceremonies and other events, but they also provide cultural teachings through stories shared around the fire. Storytelling is how we share what it means to be human. Representation in literature provides opportunities to see Indigenous children and teens as complex and nuanced individuals living dynamic lives. Author Angeline Boulley will share her 38-year-long path to publication, along with examples of other Young Adult novels featuring Indigenous protagonists, to demonstrate the importance of Indigenous storytelling.

FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER by Angeline Boulley | Book Trailer

Interview with Angeline Boulley

Netflix series in works for Michigan author’s debut novel ‘Firekeeper’s Daughter’

Fierce Reads Shelfside Chats

Read an Excertp of Firekeeper’s Daughter

Order a Signed Copy of Firekeeper’s Daughter

Honors, Awards & Recognition

A PRINTZ MEDAL WINNER
A MORRIS AWARD WINNER
AN AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH LITERATURE AWARD YA HONOR BOOK!
A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK
An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

 

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.

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