Louis Dean Owens was a novelist and scholar who claimed Choctaw, Cherokee, and Irish-American descent.
20 Facts About Louis Owens
1.
2.
Louis Owens is known for a series of Native-themed mystery novels and for his contributions to the then-fledgling field of Native American Studies.
3.
Louis Owens was a professor of English and Native American studies, and frequently contributed articles, literary criticism and reviews to periodicals.
4.
Louis Owens was born in Lompoc, CA on July 18,1948.
5.
Louis Owens was one of nine children born to Hoey and Ida Owens.
6.
From 1969 - 1974 Owens worked as a forest ranger and firefighter for the United States Forest Service in Washington State.
7.
Louis Owens taught at the University of California, Davis and at University of California, Santa Cruz, California State University at Northridge, and the University of New Mexico.
8.
Louis Owens wrote five novels in total, often featuring the relationship of Native Americans and contemporary American society, and exploring identity and mixed ancestries.
9.
Louis Owens had reputation for combining thriller plots with more universal themes.
10.
Louis Owens completed five collections of essays and literary criticism and was one of the leading American scholars on Native American fiction.
11.
Louis Owens was a member of the editorial board of the Steinbeck Quarterly.
12.
Louis Owens was on the editorial board of New America, associate editor of American Literary Realism, and co-editor of American Literary Scholarship: An Annual, 1990.
13.
Louis Owens was a member of the national committee for the Native American Literature Award and the Native American Prose Award, a member of the governing board of the Native American International Prize in Literature and a nominator for the National Medal of Arts.
14.
Louis Owens had been a member of the Advisory Board of the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute.
15.
Louis Owens contributed more than a hundred articles and reviews to periodicals, including Northeast Indian Quarterly, Arizona Quarterly, San Jose Studies, American Indian Quarterly, and USA Today.
16.
Louis Owens died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 26,2002 in Albuquerque.
17.
Louis Owens was survived by his wife and two daughters.
18.
Louis Owens received the American Book Award for Nightland in 1997.
19.
Louis Owens was a Fulbright lecturer in American literature at the University of Pisa, Italy.
20.
Louis Owens was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in 1989 and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 1987.