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Darcie
Award Winning Lipan Apache Author
Nebula Award Winner
Travels from: San Marcos, TX

“Magical, stunning, and wholly original.”—Booklist

Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award, and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist.

Her newest book, A Snake Falls to Earth, is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Darcie draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family. It is not to be missed.

Darcie is an Earth scientist, writer, and fan of the weird, beautiful, and haunting; she is married to a veterinarian named Taran.

Darcie's Featured Titles

A Snake Falls to Earth

Levine Querido |
Young Adult Fiction

Newbery Honor Winner
National Indie Bestseller
National Book Award Longlist
Minneapolis Star Tribune Best of the Year
Publishers Weekly Best of the Year
Kirkus Best the Year
Apple Best of the Year
Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best
New York Public Library’s Best of the Year
Autostraddle‘s Best Queer Books of the Year

“A spellbinding tale.”—Texas Monthly

“Genre-bending.”—TIME

“Undeniably charming.”—Tor.com

★ “Evokes the timeless feeling of listening to traditional oral storytelling.”—Kirkus (starred)

★ “Fun, imaginative, and deeply immersive, this story will be long in the minds of readers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)

★ “Magical, stunning, and wholly original.”—Booklist (starred)

“A highly descriptive story which absorbs the audience into its world, readers will become invested in reading until the very end.”—School Library Connection

A Snake Falls to Earth is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Darcie Little Badger draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family. It is not to be missed.

Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories.

Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake.

Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries.

And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.

Elatsoe

Levine Querido |
Young Adult Fiction

Locus Award Winner—Best First Novel

A National Indie Bestseller

Nebula Award Finalist

Lodestar Award Finalist

Ignyte Award Finalist

TIME’s Best 100 Fantasy Books of All Time

NPR Best of the Year

Booklist’s Top 10 First Novels for Youth

A BookPage Best of the Year

Chicago Public Library “Best of the Best”

PNBA Bestseller

Publishers Weekly Best of the Year

Buzzfeed’s Best YA SFF of the Year

Shelf-Awareness Best of the Year

AICL Best YA of the Year

NECBA Windows & Mirrors Selection

NEIBA Award Finalist

Tor Best of the Year

Kirkus Best YA of the Year

Publishers Weekly Flying Start

American Indian Youth Literature Award Finalist

“Groundbreaking.”—TIME

“Deeply enjoyable from start to finish.”—NPR

“Utterly magical.”—SyFyWire

“Atmospheric and lyrical…a gorgeous work of art.”—BuzzFeed

“One of the best YA debuts of 2020. Read it.”—Marieke Nijkamp

★ “A fresh voice and perspective.”—Booklist, starred review

★ “A unique and powerful Native American voice.”—BookPage, starred review

★ “A brilliant, engaging debut.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ “A fast-paced murder mystery.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ “A Lipan Apache Sookie Stackhouse for the teen set.”—Shelf-Awareness, starred review

A Texas teen comes face-to-face with a cousin’s ghost and vows to unmask the murderer.

Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals—most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered.

Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and it’s dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started?

A breathtaking debut novel featuring an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, fantasy elements, and is one of the most-talked about debuts of the year.

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Coming soon!

Darcie’s Bibliography

Shining Ascension Comic

Honors, Awards & Recognition

A Snake Falls to the Earth

Newbery Honor Winner
National Indie Bestseller
National Book Award Longlist
Minneapolis Star Tribune Best of the Year
Publishers Weekly Best of the Year
Kirkus Best the Year
Apple Best of the Year
Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best
New York Public Library’s Best of the Year
Autostraddle’s Best Queer Books of the Year

Elatsoe

Locus Award Winner—Best First Novel
A National Indie Bestseller
Nebula Award Finalist
Lodestar Award Finalist
Ignyte Award Finalist
TIME’s Best 100 Fantasy Books of All Time
NPR Best of the Year
Booklist’s Top 10 First Novels for Youth
A BookPage Best of the Year
Chicago Public Library “Best of the Best”
PNBA Bestseller
Publishers Weekly Best of the Year
Buzzfeed’s Best YA SFF of the Year
Shelf-Awareness Best of the Year
AICL Best YA of the Year
NECBA Windows & Mirrors Selection
NEIBA Award Finalist
Tor Best of the Year
Kirkus Best YA of the Year
Publishers Weekly Flying Start
American Indian Youth Literature Award Finalist

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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