The American Indian College Fund is hosting a free, online book and author event for the public featuring author Deborah Taffa on November 26 from 12-1 p.m. mountain time. Taffa will discuss her new book, Whiskey Tender, with College Fund president, Cheryl Crazy Bull.

Taffa, a member of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo of New Mexico, is director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Taffa wrote the acclaimed coming-of-age memoir Whiskey Tender, which was nominated for a 2024 National Book Award.

Taffa’s 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.

“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 says. Whiskey Tender has received a slew of accolades, including the Oprah Daily “Best New Book,” the New York Times “New Book to Read,” and Amazon editors’ “Best Book of the Month.” The title is also a 2024 National Book Award finalist in nonfiction and a 2025 Carnegie Medal nominee.