“Her delivery was so engaging that I lost track of time.” — Austin Page Turners, 2022

Diane Wilson (Dakota) is a writer, educator, and environmental advocate, who has published four award-winning books as well as essays in numerous publications.

Wilson’s recent novel, The Seed Keeper (Milkweed Editions) was awarded the 2022 Minnesota Book Award for Fiction. Her memoir, Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past (Borealis Books) won a 2006 Minnesota Book Award and was selected for the 2012 One Minneapolis One Read program. Her 2011 nonfiction book, Beloved Child: A Dakota Way of Life (Borealis Books) was awarded the 2012 Barbara Sudler Award from History Colorado. Wilson’s middle-grade biography, Ella Cara Deloria: Dakota Language Protector, was an Honor selection for the 2022 American Indian Youth Literature Award. She is a co-author of a 2022 picture book, Where We Come From.

Her most recent essays–which explore seed advocacy, food sovereignty, social justice, and cultural recovery–have been featured in acclaimed anthologies: Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations; We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World; and A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota. 

Wilson is the former Executive Director for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, a national coalition of tribes and organizations working to support food sovereignty, and Dream of Wild Health, a Native-led farm. Wilson is a Mdewakanton descendent, enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation. She lives near the St. Croix River in Minnesota, where she cares for an Indigenous seed garden, native perennials for pollinators, and a Tamarack bog.

Diane's Featured Titles

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Seeds for Seven Generations

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Indigenous Seed Reclamation

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Telling True Stories: Memoir

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Telling True Stories: Fiction

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Seeds and Stories

In this presentation, Diane explores the cultural and historical importance of our Indigenous seeds and the stories that help create and define the world we live in, beginning with our long oral storytelling tradition. Seeds carry stories of the land and the people who grew them, while our stories are seeds for the future we hope to create. This presentation begins with context for cultural stories, shares the story of seeds and humans beginning with the Original Agreement, the impact of colonization, and my involvement with Native organizations in restoring seeds and how that led to writing the novel, The Seed Keeper. Diane includes a brief discussion of the novel, short readings, as well as an image-based powerpoint presentation.

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Native Food Sovereignty

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Food Sovereignty and Historical Trauma

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Honoring Our Wisdom as Women Leaders

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Upcoming Events

Dakota Commemorative Song

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Minnesota Book Award
50 over 50 Award from Pollen/Midwest
Barbara Studler Award from History Colorado
One Minneapolis One Read

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.

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