Vanessa Lillie, Cherokee

Native Influencer: Author Vanessa Lillie

East Sider Vanessa Lillie prepares for the release of her fourth solo thriller, The Bone Thief.

Photo by Brittanny Taylor, courtesy of Vanessa Lillie

August 1, 2025

Meet Vanessa Lillie on August 18 at Wakefield Books where she’s participating in a thriller panel with fellow authors Jessa Maxwell and Kristin Offiler. For more information and to register, visit WakefieldBooks.com. 

By Hugh Minor

The Bone Thief is your second novel featuring Syd Walker, a Cherokee archaeologist based in Rhode Island. What’s your connection with this character?

Syd has the same last name of a family member who walked the Trail of Tears [forced relocation of Indigenous peoples in the Southeast US during the 1830s]. A lot of her work is around fighting the erasure of Indigenous peoples. So it’s great to have a way to share the Cherokee language, to share some of the history. Even the Walker Family Cemetery featured in the book is a real cemetery, part of my family history.

 

What led to this novel being so rich with local history?

As a writer, I’m really interested in the way history echoes. Being Cherokee from Oklahoma is very different from being Narragansett from Rhode Island. I put Syd, who is similar to me, a white-presenting Cherokee, in this world of Rhode Island, where I’m thinking about modern colonialism and what the history of a place means to us all.

 

What terrifying adventure is Syd Walker facing this time?

In the second book, we dig into the Great Swamp Massacre. I created a fictional, wealthy kids’ camp where some remains tied to the Massacre are found. Again, we’ll deal with a missing girl and how that ties into our history. I bring in the Smoke Shop Raid from our more recent past (July 14, 2003 in Charlestown) and how that impacted the Narragansett tribe and still resonates today.

 

You’re very involved in the local literary community, participating in reading events and panels at bookstores and libraries. What do you love about these experiences? 

It’s really fun to connect with other writers. It can be a pretty lonely profession. I love hanging out and meeting people from this community. There are pockets of really enthusiastic readers who support authors or support bookstores. They’ve built a community around their local authors. You see familiar faces at all of these events.

 

What are some of your go-tos on writing breaks?

Hope Street businesses! I love to shop at Kreatelier, J Marcel, Studio Hop, pH Factor, and Frog & Toad. Cafe Zoey for coffee, outside lunch at Wara Wara, and ice cream after at Like No Udder!

 

Meet Vanessa Lillie on August 18 at Wakefield Books where she’s participating in a thriller panel with fellow authors Jessa Maxwell and Kristin Offiler. For more information and to register, visit WakefieldBooks.com. Learn more at VanessaLillie.com