Sherman Alexie: Genius in our Midst

Sherman Alexie, for one, is no Stranger to genius
Alt-weekly delivers bad cake and a big check to 5 artists
By REGINA HACKETT
P-I ART CRITIC

Sherman Alexie was eating fried chicken in Garfield Park with Stranger editor Christopher Frizzelle when he noticed people heading their way. Later he said that he tried to divert them with an ice vibe, imagining they planned to interrupt his lunch to praise him.

They were, but in a more concrete way than he envisioned. Onto his table they thrust a cake that bore a candy-colored compliment: "You're a Genius."

He'd been hit by the Stranger's cake patrol. It's lousy cake, by all accounts, and the frosting had partly adhered to the box, but it comes with consolations. Along with the other winners of the 2008 Stranger Genius Awards, Alexie gets a check for $5,000 and a party thrown in his honor Sept. 13 at the Moore Theatre.


Alexie
Besides Alexie's award for writing, winners this year are Wynne Greenwood for visual art, Paul Mullin for theater, Lynn Shelton for film and Implied Violence as an institution.

The Stranger initiated the awards six years ago to counter the idea they were nothing but a bunch of naysayers and as an attempt to bloom where they're planted, in Seattle.

Stranger book editor Paul Constant called Alexie's award the "most obvious Genius Award in the history of the Genius Awards."

The Stranger hesitated to give him one, mainly because, Frizzelle said, Alexie occasionally writes for the paper and it might seem as if the Stranger were giving the award to itself.

Not to worry, Alexie said: "I do it contemptuously." (The Stranger cover story this week is Alexie's "Sixty One Things I Learned During the Sonics Trial.")

"Those who live in Seattle are no strangers to THE STRANGER newpaper. It is a little harder to find here in the South Sound, in Tacoma. I did not realize Sherman contributed to the rag. Hell, now I will have to start reading it religiously.

Glenn Buttkus"