LeAnne Howe, an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is an author, playwright, filmmaker and scholar. Born and educated in Oklahoma, she's lectured in Japan, Jordan, Romania, and Spain. Shell Shaker, Howe's first novel, received an American Book Award in 2002 from the Before Columbus Foundation. In 2003, she was named Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year, 2002, Creative Prose. Equinoxes Rouge, the French translation for Shell Shaker is the 2004 finalist for the Prix Medici Etranger, one of France's top literary awards. Currently she is assistant professor in the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. In September 2005, she will be an associate professor in the Departments of English, and American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.