Debra Magpie Earling is the author of The Lost Journals of Sacajewa and Perma Red. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She retired from the University of Montana where she was named professor emeritus in 2021. She is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. She is Bitterroot Salish.