Seeds and Stories with Diane Wilson
Diane Wilson
Thursday, November 6, 2025 娄 7:00 PM 娄 快盈v3 Fine Arts Building Recital Hall
Diane Wilson (Dakota) is a writer and educator, who has published four award-winning books as well as essays in numerous publications. Her presentation, Seeds & Stories, 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 Seedkeeper. I include a brief discussion of the novel, short readings, as well as an image-based powerpoint presentation.
About Diane Wilson
Diane Wilson (Dakota) is a writer and educator, who has published four award-winning books as well as essays in numerous publications. Her first picture book, Where We Come From, co-written with John Coy, Sun Yung Shin, and Shannon Gibney, was released in October, 2022. Wilson鈥檚 2021 novel, The Seed Keeper, (Milkweed Editions) received 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. Her essays have appeared in many anthologies, including: Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations (2021); We Are Meant to Rise (2021); and A Good Time for the Truth (2016).
Wilson has received a 2013 Bush Foundation Fellowship as well as awards from Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and a 50 Over 50 Award from Pollen/Midwest.
Wilson is the former Executive Director for Dream of Wild Health, an Indigenous non-profit farm, and the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, a national coalition of tribes and organizations working to create sovereign food systems for Native people.