A former Arizona Republic photojournalist and writer is a finalist for the 2026 PEN America Literary Awards — one of the most prestigious in the country.
Mary Annette Pember is the author of the book “Medicine River,” which documents the myriad abuses that took place inside America’s Indian boarding schools. The book is also personal: Pember’s mother was sent to a boarding school in Wisconsin at the age of 5.
Pember says she has been writing about boarding schools and her mother’s traumatic connection to them for more than 25 years.
“Many children develop disease in these in these schools, where they got these kids up in these pretty unhealthy circumstances. And of course, you know, surprisingly, children shared a lot of communicable diseases, especially tuberculosis and a lot of children died," she said.
She credits her mother for the opportunity to write about the issue.
“My mother really kind of placed me on this quest from, oh my gosh, my earliest memory to write about her experience and the unfairness of it, and, you know, to seek some justice," she said.
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