Roofwalker By Susan Power (Milkweed Editions)

Susan Power is known for her “powerful characters,” but she’s a powerful character herself. She was born in Chicago in 1961 of a mother from Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota and a father from Ithaca, New York. She went through Harvard Law School before entering the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and knocking off her MFA. Married once, Power is now divorced and claims to have set her ex-husband up with the woman he later wedded in a ceremony Power attended. “So I’m a good loser,” she surmises. Humble words from the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and creator of work that has been lauded by major literary critics as “inspiring and unforgettable,” “remarkable,” and “fresh, political, and daring.” In addition to establishing Power as an important literary voice, The Grass Dancer also became a national best-seller. But, says Power, that book was her mother’s story, whereas her latest work of fiction, Roofwalker , belongs to her. Power credits Louise Erdrich for having had a profound influence on her own writing, as shows in the subdued wilderness of her prose, which is straightforward, raw, and authentic. Readings at Ruminator, September 17 and Birch Bark Books, September 21