Acclaimed author Sherman Alexie will be the featured author at the launch event of Prairie Schooner, the international literary journal at UNL, as it celebrates the release of its Winter 2012 issue. Alexie guest-edited a portfolio of poetry and prose by contemporary Native American authors in the issue. The event will take place at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center at 7 p.m. on January 28 and 29.

The two-day event is free and open to the public. On the first evening, during which Alexie will not be in attendance, Prairie Schooner will host a screening of “Smoke Signals,” a film written and co-produced by Alexie. “Smoke Signals” won the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. On the second evening, Alexie will read from his creative work, which will be followed by an on-stage interview with Kwame Dawes, Prairie Schooner Editor-in-Chief, and a book signing.

Alexie’s most recent books are “War Dances” (Grove Press), stories and poems, and “Face” (Hanging Loose Press), a book of poems. He is the winner of the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award, the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the 2001 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, and a Special Citation for the 1994 PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Fiction.