Darcie Little Badger

Darcie Little Badger (formerly Darcie Erin Ryan; born 1987) is an American novelist, short story writer, and Earth scientist. She writes speculative fiction, especially horror, science fiction, and fantasy. She is a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. Her stories often feature Apache and/or LGBTQ characters. She has described herself and been described by others as writing within the Indigenous Futurisms movement.

Early life and education Darcie Little Badger was born Darcie Erin Ryan in 1987. At age seven she wrote her first book, which was submitted for publication with her father's help and rejected. Throughout her childhood Little Badger moved due to her father's job, but considered Texas to be her home. and TAMU's Chapman Award for Graduate Student Research, both under the name Darcie Ryan.

Scientific career After graduating from Texas A&M, Little Badger took a job as an editor of scientific papers.

Little Badger's short stories often feature Apache history and lore. For example, two Apache sisters reunite in "Whalebone Parrot" (The Dark Magazine, 2017), a Victorian horror story set in the late 19th century on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. During the conflict between their tribe and the U.S. Army, the women were orphaned and grew up together in a residential school. Similarly, in "Owl vs. the Neighborhood Watch" (Strange Horizons, 2017), she places Owl, a shapeshifting supernatural harbinger of evil from Apache lore, in the setting of contemporary Appalachia.

Novels Little Badger began writing her debut novel, Elatsoe, in 2017. It was a national indie bestseller for 12 weeks. The story is set in modern-day Texas; the main character, Ellie, is a seventeen-year-old asexual Lipan Apache teen. Ellie is accompanied by the ghost of her pet dog Kirby; she used her grandmothers' traditional techniques to bring him back to life. Kirby and Ellie are joined by Ellie's friend and classmate Jay as they work to solve the murder of her cousin. At the same time, they confront an enclave of vampires plaguing people near Willowbee, a mysterious town in South Texas. It was named a best book of 2020 by NPR, BookPage, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness, Tor.com, Time named it one of the best fantasy books of all time.

Little Badger began writing her second novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, in early 2020. Climate change plays a pivotal role in the story's plot. Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Tor.com, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library. It was a national indie bestseller for 8 weeks.

She released a prequel to Elatsoe called Sheine Lende in 2024, with illustrations by Rovina Cai. The book won the 2025 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.

Comics Little Badger and Magdalene Visaggio co-wrote Strangelands Vol. 1, illustrated by Guillermo Sana. It was published by H1 in 2019. She contributed a story about Danielle Moonstar with art by Kyle Charles to Marvel's Voices: Indigenous Voices #1 in 2020. She also wrote for the second issue of Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Shapeshifters.

Community organizing Little Badger served as a delegate to the National Congress of American Indians for the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. She also serves as a science advisor and is the tribe's Storyteller Laureate. The court acknowledged the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas as an American Indian Tribe with a long history in Texas. In a settlement between the plaintiffs and the Interior Department, the Interior Department accepted the American Indian status of the plaintiffs who were not members of a federally recognized tribe and granted them lifetime permits to "possess, carry, use, wear, give, loan, or exchange among other Indians, without compensation, all federally protected birds, as well as their parts or feathers" for their "Indian religious use".

On November 30, 2021, Little Badger was one of her tribe's representatives who traveled to Presidio, Texas, to be a speaker in a Lipan traditional ceremony celebrating the city of Presidio and Presidio County's transfer of a historical Lipan cemetery back to the tribe. The celebration focused on the local Presidio community's return of many sentinel stones that had been taken from Lipan gravesites throughout the years.

Personal life Little Badger is asexual. Newbery Medal Newbery Honor Honoree Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

Finalist Andre Norton Award Winner Ursula K. Le Guin Prize Shortlist Ignyte Awards Outstanding Novel – Young Adult Winner 2021 National Book Award Young People's Literature Longlist

Whippoorwill Book Award N/A Winner American Indian Youth Literature Awards Young Adult Honor Book

Locus Award Best First Novel Winner Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

Andre Norton Award New England Book Award Young Adult Published works

Novels

Short fiction YearTitlePublication2014"First Ride of the Day""Siren Son""Nkásht íí"2015"""The Girl Turns West""When Whales Fall"2016"Né łe!""Black, Their Regalia""Their Laughing Gal"2017"Skinwalker, Fast-Talker""Owl vs. The Neighborhood Watch" ""2019"Kelsey and the Burdened Breath""Robo-Liopleurodon!""Homecoming""Grace""Story for a Bottle"2020"Unlike Most Tides""Venom and Bite""""How to Use Your Visor (Fire)""Making Faces (Earth)"2022""2023"The Scientist's Horror Story" (2023). The Scientist's Horror Story". Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology

Nonfiction "When Danger is Announced" in Nightmare Magazine #83 (August 2019)

As editor Mermaids Never Drown (Feiwel and Friends, 2023), with Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker Beyond the Glittering World (Torrey House Press, 2025), with Kinsale Drake and Shannon Stacie Denetsosie