When I began writing
Where the Dead Sit Talking, I was thinking a lot about the ideas of displacement and identity among Native youth, particularly in the foster care system in Oklahoma. In some ways, I think, this novel is a sort of horror novel. The ambiguities surrounding Sequoyah’s obsessions and behavior are certainly alarming, as are the ambiguous behaviors surrounding most teenagers who feel unwanted. But this is largely what drew me to his character and voice. I was a social worker for seven years. I worked with youth who were locked up for committing crimes and youth who were in the foster care system. I kept thinking about the way the system fails and continues to fail in that so many youth are shifted from foster home to youth shelter to a different foster home, back to the youth shelter, until eventually they end up on the street or leaving the state...