Conley RobertJ

American Cherokee author who received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas in 2007. He was an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, a federally recognized tribe of American Indians. He is noted for depictions of precontact and historical Cherokee figures. He is known for a series of books called the Real People Series. The sixth of the series, The Dark Island (1996) won the Spur Award for best Western novel in 1995. He has also won two other Spur Awards, in 1988 for the short story "Yellow Bird", and in 1992 for the novel Nickajack. In 2010, Robert Conley became the first American Indian to lead the Western Writers of America, at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina. He died on 16 February 2014 at age 73 in Sylva, North Carolina. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less