When the MacArthur Foundation announced its 2025 Fellows, one name carried through Native communities like a spark. Tommy Orange, the Cheyenne and Arapaho author from Oakland, was named one of this year’s recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, often called the “genius grant.” The award provides $800,000 over five years with no restrictions, giving artists the freedom to create on their own terms.
For Native readers and writers, Tommy’s recognition as a MacArthur Fellow is more than an individual accomplishment, but a reminder of the power and resonance of truth in storytelling. Tommy’s work speaks to those of us who live between worlds, carrying the memories of our people and our pasts while shouldering the weight of being and healing in the present-day. His stories remind us that being Native isn’t confined to one place or time. We are still here. Living, struggling, and thriving in the hustle and bustle of large cities and in small, rural towns. But it’s the collective memories and stories that keep us whole and connected to who we are and to each other, regardless of where we are in the space of time and the world around us.
His first novel, There There, arrived in 2018 and became an instant classic. The book follows twelve characters whose lives intersect at a powwow in Oakland, each one carrying a piece of what it means to be an urban Native in today’s world and a study of the way the past still has a way of living in the now. It hit readers in a way few books do, especially for urban Natives whose realities are often overlooked in the landscape of Native life. It became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won awards, including the PEN/Hemingway and the John Leonard Prize.
His second novel, Wandering Stars, published in 2024, looks back to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the forced assimilation of Native children at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, tracing those histories into the lives of present-day descendants as they grapple with the aftermath of the events in There, There. Wandering Stars was awarded the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize, long-listed for the 2024 Booker Prize, and named to Time’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2024.
Tommy has always been open about his family’s struggles with addiction and how those realities shaped his storytelling. He writes with honesty and empathy, never shying away from hard truths but always leaving space for healing. It’s that honesty and empathy that allows him to perfectly capture the complexity of being Native, of being human in a world that has often tries to erase Native existence. It allows us to be seen in our full humanity, to be vulnerable, angry, hurt and fallible but still hopeful and healing.
The MacArthur Fellowship gives him the freedom to keep going, to write without compromise, and to keep mentoring and uplifting others. It is not just a recognition of his individual talent but of the power and importance of Indigenous storytelling itself.
Tommy’s work has already changed the way people see Native realities, and this fellowship ensures he’ll have the time and space to keep telling the truth with heart, clarity, and care.
Congratulations Tommy Orange! We are so proud of you and can’t wait for what comes next!
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