Angeline Boulley
“Kindness is something that seems small, but it’s like tossing a pebble into a pond and the ripples reach further than you thought.”
-Angeline Boulley, Firekeeper’s Daughter
Angeline Boulley is an Anishinaabe author from Sugar Island, Michigan. She made her debut as an author in the March of 2021, with her Young Adult Thriller, Firekeeper’s Daughter, which is a novel about an eighteen-year-old biracial Indigenous woman who must uncover deadly secrets within her community, take on responsibilities larger than herself, and find her truth in the process.
Boulley states that the idea for her novel came about when she was eighteen years old. A friend of hers told her that there was a new guy who was attending her school, as they went to different schools at the time. Her friend said that New Guy seemed just her type, and noted that he mainly hung around with the stoners. At the end of her friend's school year, there was a big drug bust and New Guy was revealed to be an undercover cop.
She then started thinking,
“What if I’d been in classes with him?”
“What if we liked each other?”
Though the question that really brought the story into fruition was “What if it wasn’t that he liked me, but that he needed my help?”
Boulley says that she loved mystery novels growing up, and even said that the main character of her own book is like the Indigenous Nancy Drew.
Her book took ten years to write. She says that representation in literature is so important for teenagers. When her own kids were preteens, she notes her daughter in particular, she decided to write a book that had a main character who is Indigenous.
On March 2nd, 2021, Boulley says in an inspiring tweet
“Dear Aspiring Writer:
My great idea came at 18.
Then, 3 kids, career, life, etc.
Started writing at 44.
At 54, I…
Signed w/agent
Sold debut at auction
Optioned film rights to Higher Ground (the Obamas)/Netflix
Firekeeper’s Daughter hits stores 3/16.
I’m 55.
Never Give Up.”
Read more about the author:
Angeline Boulley’s Good Morning America interview:
