Angeline Boulley Wanted to Tell Native Women’s Stories. Now She Has a Bestseller and a Netflix Deal.

Glamour: This has been a giant year for you. How does it feel to have so many wins?

Angeline Boulley: I always knew that there was something about the story, that it was bigger than me. I always had faith that it would be published, that if I kept at it, it was going to be on a bookshelf some day. But the response when it went out on submission...it’s still surreal that it struck a chord with so many people. So many people are so eager to learn more about tribal communities! I had no idea that it would be this big.

You took a non-traditional road—did you always want to be a writer? 

I always liked writing, but I think I got the message that writing wasn’t something you pursue seriously because you need to pay the bills. I always knew I would be working, I would be supporting a family, I would be making sure I could take care of myself in the world. And then interestingly, I would always write grants for whatever tribe I was working for. And I realized I was writing a story—I was writing a compelling narrative. I had to state the need, I had to do it in a short span of pages, and maybe the person had never ever been on a reservation, and I had to make sure that that grant reviewer would feel invested in this little story that I was telling. I used to feel bad that I didn’t have an MFA. But I realized that grant writing is a very valid form of storytelling—I developed my craft through that.

How did you write a novel as a full-time worker full-time and mom of three? 

It’s so odd, I was never a morning person, but in my mid-40s, I changed. I would get up early so I could write for a few hours before going to work. And then it was like—getting up at six in the morning wasn’t enough! It would be really hard to drag myself away and go to work. I would get up earlier and earlier. If I could be at my writing desk by five in the morning then I knew I could write for three hours. Because when I woke up, that’s when I felt the freshest. My day job was so intensive that when I came home I would be exhausted, and work will always take everything you have to give, it will take everything and more, and I just loved the story and wanted to give it my best part.

And it took ten years! How did you keep going?

When my daughter was a preteen I was thinking, “Okay, I really think I have something here. I think I've worked out all the bits and pieces in my head, I think I could put together a story.” I didn’t realize it would take ten years! She’s a senior in college now. I would know each time I finished a draft that something was missing. My dialogue wasn’t up to par, the tension in a scene could have been better, and life happens—I went through a divorce, I got three kids through high school. I had to set stuff aside for a little while, but then I’d be excited about diving in again and making another go at it, and that this next draft would be better than the other drafts because I would take care of this plot hole. Yes—ten years of that.