Indigenous author Deborah Taffa will be discussing her new book “Whiskey Tender” during a free online event from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. (EST) Nov. 26 with the American Indian College Fund (College Fund).

Taffa will join College Fund president Cheryl Crazy Bull to discuss her book, which is a coming-of-age memoir and was nominated for a 2024 National Book Award, according to a College Fund press release.

“Part of reclaiming our sovereignty as Native people is reclaiming the power to tell our own stories from a perspective that is a truer version of American history than the one that gets told,” Taffa said in the release.

Taffa is a member of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and the Laguna Pueblo of New Mexico. She is director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

“Her book shares her journey from the Yuma reservation in Southern California to Farmington, New Mexico after her father relocated for a job under the Indian Relocation Act. She details her struggles for acceptance while seeking to understand her connection to her Native culture, lands, and traditions, and how she came to appreciate her identity and resist assimilation and oppression,” the release said.

Visit https://engage.collegefund.org/page/73271/event/1 to register for the book discussion.