( Kirsten Lara Getchell)

Author Beth Piatote grew up on a farm in Idaho, teaches English at Berkeley, studies the Nez Perce language, chairs the Graduate group in Indigenous Language Revitalization at UC and in her spare time she writes short stories and poetry drawing on her Native American background.

She weaves her Nez Perce culture with themes of love, loss, grief, childhood and longing into her book, "The Beadworkers: Stories." The book has won critical acclaim, was featured on NPR and was short-listed for the Golden Poppy Prize for Fiction. Piatote joined Idaho Matters to talk more about her new book.