All about Jim Northrup

MN VOICES | Jim Northrup writes on the Rez Road

By Stephanie FoxFor more than 21 years, Jim Northrup has been one of the premier literary voices of the American Indian and the Midwest writers' communities. He is a playwright, a fiction writer, a newspaper columnist and teacher, but he calls himself a bullshitter--another name, he says, for a storyteller.

Northrup, 67, is best known by many as a poet and for his award winning syndicated column Fond du Lac Follies, published monthly in The Circle, The Native American Press, News From Indian Country, and the Daily Planet. His books include Walking the Rez Road, a collection of short stories featuring Viet Nam veteran Luke Warmwater as the main character, and Rez Road Follies.

His writing is filled with bone-dry and often pointed humor. Whether about his time in Vietnam, his run-ins with civil authorities to uphold treaty rights, his conflicts with tribal governments or his experiences with non-Indians who assume that he lives in a tipi, Northrup has a certain point of view, written to inflict a bit of discomfort to the comfortable reader.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.