The prominent and prolific author and filmmaker may face allegations of sexual misconduct soon.
The author won a National Book Award in 2007 and a Stranger Genius Award the following year. CHASE JARVIS

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that the Institute of American Indian Arts "distanced themselves" from Sherman Alexie after multiple sources said the prominent Seattle writer and filmmaker may soon face allegations of sexual misconduct.

The author "served on several occasions since the early 1990s as both a visiting writer and a mentor to students at the institute." His last contract as a mentor at the school's low-residency MFA program ended in October of 2017.

In a statement posted to Facebook, IAIA officials say they will change the name of the "Sherman Alexie Scholarship" to the "MFA Alumni Scholarship."

No one has come forward on the record to allege sexual misconduct or assault against Alexie. NPR, Publisher's Weekly, Seattle Times, and New York Times are all rumored to be working on stories about this. Jezebel put up a post linking to tweets written by Litsa Dremousis, a local author who claims she was friends with Alexie for 15 years. Seattle Met published a similar post.

Alexie did not respond to The Stranger's request for comment yesterday. He has contributed essays, short stories, and poems to The Stranger over the years.

On Twitter, Dremousis claims "several dozen" women have come forward, but it's unclear in what forum they allegedly came forward. Dremousis, who is not alleging he sexually harassed her, says the women involved are scared to speak out.

"I came forward as soon as I could ethically do so because I want Sherman to stop harming women,” Dremousis said in an e-mail to The Stranger. "Twelve hours after I learned one of my best friends was sexually harassing women, I confronted him w/ their explicit permission and asked him what the hell he thought was doing and that he had to stop it now. I told him if the women came forward, he had to shut up and take it b/c it's all true. (I know many of the Seattle-based women.)” She says Alexie didn’t respond to the e-mail.

Dremousis has also been encouraging anyone who says they have a story about Alexie to contact NPR.



Anyone who has an allegation to share with the press may also contact me here.

On Sunday, Native scholar and writer Debbie Reese wrote "An Open Letter About Sherman Alexie" on the blog American Indians in Children's Literature. In the letter, Reese writes:

Yesterday, I removed Sherman Alexie's photograph from AICL's gallery of Native writers and illustrators. Since then, I have begun going through the eleven years of AICL posts, making edits to any page that has referenced Alexie or his work.

Based on private conversations I have had, I can no longer let his work sit on AICL without noting that he has hurt other Native writers in overt and subtle ways, including abuse, threats, and humiliation.

Earlier this month, five people anonymously named Alexie in the comments section of an article from the School Library Journal titled Children's Publishing Reckons With Sexual Harassment in Its Ranks. The commenters provided no specifics. One of them self-identified as a participant in writer Anne Ursu's "survey about sexual harassment in children's publishing," which Ursu published on Medium.

A reporter at Publishers Weekly said on Twitter he's been working on a story about allegations against Alexie since October of 2017. This morning the writer, John Maher, finally published a story, but it contains no on-the-record allegations.