David Heska Wanbli Weiden

David Heska Wanbli Weiden [ deɪvɪd hɛskɛn wɒnbliː waɪdɛn] is a Lakota American

Life Weiden grew up in the Swansea/Elyria neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. As an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, he spent summers at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Weiden received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Juris Doctor degree from University of Denver's Sturm College of Law. After practicing law for several years, he decided to pursue academia, earning a PhD in political science from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2022, he served as a mentor for PEN America's Emerging Writers program.

Weiden lives in Denver with his family. and a Tin House Scholar (2019).

His debut novel Winter Counts was named one of the best crime novels of the year by The Guardian, NPR, and Publishers Weekly. It was also a New York Times Editors' Choice selection in October 2020. +AwardsYearTitleAwardResultRef.2014"Sourtoe"Tribal College Journal Fiction ContestWinner 2018"Carlisle Longings"PRISM International Creative Nonfiction PrizeLonglist 2019Winter CountsShamus Award for Best First PI NovelFinalist Winter CountsGoodreads Choice Award for Debut NovelNominee Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & ThrillerNominee Barry Award for Best First NovelWinner Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First NovelFinalist Hammett PrizeFinalist International Thriller Writers Award for Best First NovelWinner Macavity Award for Best First Mystery NovelWinner Spur Award for Best Western Contemporary NovelWinner Spur Award for Best First Western NovelWinner

Selected works Books

Spotted Tail, illustrated by Jim Yellowhawk (2019) Winter Counts (2020) Wisdom Corner (2026)

Short works

Creative nonfiction

“Carlisle Longings,” published in Shenandoah (2020) “Writing in the Time of Family Separations,” published in Shenandoah blog The Peak (2020)

Other nonfiction

“This 19th-Century Law Helps Shape Criminal Justice in Indian Country,” published in The New York Times (July 19, 2020) “Distractions,” published on the Poisoned Pen blog (August 19, 2020) “Seven Essential Native American Crime Novels,” published in The Strand Magazine (September 5, 2020) “Why Indigenous Crime Fiction Matters,” published in CrimeReads (September 9, 2020) “A Year in Reading,” published in The Millions (December 9, 2020) “Writing to Change the World” published in Writer’s Digest (July/August 2021) “Writing Winter Counts,” published in The Bookseller (August 13, 2021) “Looking Back on ‘There There,'” published on Alta Online (November 9, 2021)

Short stories

“Spork,” published in Transmotion (2016) “Skin,” published in Midnight Hour, edited by Abby Vandiver (2021) “Turning Heart,” published in This Time For Sure, edited by Hank Phillippi Ryan (2021). Reprinted in the Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022, edited by Jess Walter and Steph Cha “Colfax and Havana,” published in Denver Noir, edited by Cynthia Swanson (2022) “Hooch,” published in The Perfect Crime, edited by Maxim Jakubowski and Vaseem Khan (2022) “Sundays,” published in Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. (2023)