Picture a Cherokee storyteller weaving tales where history meets horror, pulling you into the heart of Native American resilience—meet Andrea L. Rogers! A citizen of the Cherokee Nation from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Rogers crafts stories that blend haunting historical truths with speculative twists, redefining how young readers experience Indigenous narratives. Her award-winning works, like Mary and the Trail of Tears and Man Made Monsters, invite us to confront the past while celebrating Cherokee strength.
Rogers’s unique voice resonates with readers, offering a lens into Cherokee culture that’s both unflinching and hopeful. Whether it’s a middle-grade novel or a chilling YA horror collection, her stories are a love letter to her heritage and a call to remember the stories often left untold.
The Making of Andrea L. Rogers
Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Andrea L. Rogers grew up surrounded by Cherokee culture, yet she noticed a gap in the stories she read as a child—Native voices were often absent. This sparked her passion for writing. With a BA in English from the University of Tulsa and an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Rogers honed her craft, later pursuing a PhD in English at the University of Arkansas. Before becoming a full-time writer, she taught art and English in public schools for 14 years, shaping young minds while dreaming up her own stories.
Her early life in Tulsa, a city with deep Native roots, and her family’s oral histories, including tales of ancestors who survived the Trail of Tears, fueled her storytelling. Rogers’s blend of personal experience and academic rigor makes her a powerful voice in Indigenous literature.
Andrea L. Rogers’s Unforgettable Stories
Rogers’s debut, Mary and the Trail of Tears: A Cherokee Removal Survival Story (2020), is a middle-grade historical fiction novel that follows 12-year-old Mary as her family endures the forced removal of 1838. Rooted in survivor accounts and missionary journals, it’s a heart-wrenching yet hopeful tale of resilience, earning spots on NPR’s and American Indians in Children’s Literature’s 2020 best-of lists.
Her YA horror collection, Man Made Monsters (2022), is a genre-defying masterpiece. Spanning two centuries of a Cherokee family, it weaves vampires, werewolves, and ghosts with real horrors like colonialism and displacement. Illustrated by Cherokee artist Jeff Edwards, it won the Walter Dean Myers Award for its diverse storytelling. Rogers’s latest, The Art Thieves (2024), a Cherokee futurism YA novel, imagines a bold future, while her picture book When We Gather (2024) celebrates Cherokee wild onion dinners with warmth and community.
Rogers’s style is vivid and accessible, blending speculative elements with raw historical truths. Her stories center Cherokee voices, challenging stereotypes and inviting readers to see Native people as vibrant, surviving, and thriving, not relics of the past.
Why Andrea L. Rogers Matters
Andrea L. Rogers is more than a writer—she’s a cultural torchbearer. By centering Cherokee experiences in children’s and YA literature, she fills a critical gap, offering young Native readers mirrors to see themselves and non-Native readers windows into Indigenous realities. Her work confronts painful histories like the Trail of Tears while celebrating Cherokee traditions, language, and futurism, ensuring these stories endure.
Her impact extends to education, where she teaches Cherokee language and English, advocating for Native representation in curricula. Awards like the Walter Dean Myers and Whippoorwill affirm her role in reshaping how Indigenous stories are told, making her a vital voice in modern literature.
- Birthplace: Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Key Works: Mary and the Trail of Tears, Man Made Monsters, The Art Thieves, When We Gather
- Awards: Walter Dean Myers Award, Whippoorwill Award
- Fun Fact: Rogers is active only on Bluesky, sharing her writing journey!
Snag Man Made Monsters or When We Gather and dive into Andrea L. Rogers’s thrilling, heartfelt world of Cherokee storytelling!