Darcie Little Badger will tell you the story

shaped by stories—the stories passed down to her through generations of family members, the stories she devoured as a fantasy-obsessed kid, the stories she now writes in books for young adults. And, of course, the story that gave her her name. She was born Darcie Erin Ryan—Little Badger coming, in the tradition of the Lipan Apache tribe, upon graduation from high school. “Badger” is an important figure in the tribe’s origin narrative, which says that at first, the earth was empty—and then the creatures of the world below set out to explore it. Pausing on a park bench in Brooklyn, the author describes the significance of her namesake. “Badger is the animal person who went up to earth and was responsible enough to then go