Last Saturday was an eerily quiet day in Cynthia Leitich Smith’s hometown of Denton, Tex., which was freshly blanketed with a rare eight-inch snowfall. “No one leaves their house in Texas during a winter freeze!” she said, describing the stillness outdoors. “There are no tire tracks on the roads—nothing but squirrel and bunny pawprints in the snow.”
After braving the cold to walk her somewhat confused dogs, who had never encountered snow drifts, the author returned home and was surprised to find a message on her phone—from YALSA. “I called the number back, talked to award committee chair Jodeana Kruse, and found out that we had won the Printz,” she said. “I was genuinely gobsmacked—receiving this award had never occurred to me.”
The loosely connected tales that comprise Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories, a compendium written by 17 Indigenous authors, which Smith edited, take place in an urban Native hangout whose big neon sign beckons to teens of various tribal Nations who are trying to sort out life, love, and identity. Smith’s own poem, “Open Mic at the Drive-In,” is the final entry in the collection.
The idea of compiling a book of stories by Native authors came to Smith, a citizen of the Muscogee Nation, several years ago. “I am community-oriented—maybe even to the point of being considered a ‘little-miss-group-project,’ and I believe sharing stories is more of a ‘we’ exercise—and not something to always be done by me individually,” she explained. She compiled a list of 16 authors she knows personally from working as author-curator of Heartdrum, the Native-focused imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books that she cofounded in 2021 with Rosemary Brosnan; from coordinating the annual We Need Diverse Books Native writing intensive; and from teaching in Vermont College’s MFA program.
Smith was determined to include new as well as experienced writers in the anthology. “Four of the writers had not yet been published, but I knew how much they could bring to the book,” she noted. “I wanted them to have the chance to work in collaboration with well-established authors whose works are mentor texts that help inspire them to write in the first place—the kinds of books that didn’t exist when I began writing.”
Given the founding mission of Heartdrum, to help expand the publishing landscape to offer more opportunities for Native writers, receiving the Printz Award for Legendary Frybread Drive-In is especially gratifying and validating for Smith. “We are the original storytellers of this continent, and too often our voices have been shoved aside,” she said. “The fact that educators and librarians are not only not trying to mute Native voices but are actively working to promote us represents a sea change since my grandparents’ generation and it’s absolutely miraculous. Librarians are saying we shouldn’t be silenced, that our stories must be shared across the nation, which is both healing and worth celebrating. This book was a team effort from start to finish and I am so very grateful. It was such a rewarding experience—in some ways, it felt like engaging in ceremony rather than daily work.”
