Another Name for Red

MOST ANTICIPATED: CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS, DEBUTIFUL, MS. MAGAZINE, BOOK RIOT, CRIMEREADS, KQED

“I love a story that conjures a sense of place in all its beauty and bruises, and Amber Blaeser-Wardzala’s debut novel does just that and more… . While Another Name for Red is a fantastic mystery, its true success is in the way Blaeser-Wardzala explores the ways in which this absence lingers over this grieving family and community. Suspenseful, enticing, and moving… this debut does it all.”
—Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books

“This powerful debut highlights the missing and murdered Indigenous women epidemic.”
—Ms. Magazine

“With a perfect mix of humor, heart, and a critical eye, [Blaeser-Wardzala] crafts a community of beautiful and complicated characters that carry the weight of their personal and collective histories on their shoulders… . Another Name for Red is a thrilling mystery that doesn’t promise easy answers or the final grand truth. It’s a novel … where healing doesn’t come in great epiphanies but instead in gradual, subtle, and quietly meaningful moments of progress.”
—Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books

“Raw and human… . This thriller is … a story of finding answers, getting closure, and standing up for what’s right.”
—Alexandria Ingham, Parade, “7 Gripping New Books Worth Sacrificing Your Sleep Schedule for This Week”

“Based on the realities of missing and murdered Indigenous women in North America, Blaeser-Wardzala succeeds in illustrating the uphill battles facing her community in her tense, suspenseful debut novel.”
—KQED

“Electric… . Packed with mystery, tension, and the unbearable weight of the long history of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Another Name For Red is one of the best debuts of 2026.”
—Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books

“Amber Blaeser-Wardzala had one of the most striking stories in … Never Whistle at Night. Her debut novel is even more powerful, the story of a missing Anishinaabe woman and the sister whose life is coming undone under the strain of the trauma.”
—Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads

“A beautiful and harrowing page-turner, Another Name for Red has a thriller’s pace and an elegiac heart. Middle Sister’s guilt, rage, and underlying strength propel the reader through this story of a missing young woman, whose tragic disappearance is part of something much bigger.”
—Anna North, New York Times bestselling author of Outlawed and Bog Queen

“Another Name for Red is a beautifully written, poignant and propulsive debut novel about loss, hope, and the difficult relationships in the life of an Anishinaabe woman. I absolutely devoured this novel. Amber Blaeser-Wardzala is an engaging and extraordinary new voice in Native American literature. You will not be able to put this book down!”
—Brandon Hobson, National Book Award finalist and author of The Removed

“A powerful debut that is both fearless and heartfelt, an unflinching exploration of the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis as well as the tireless pursuit of justice for those we love. Amber Blaeser-Wardzala puts her heart on these pages, which will stay with readers long after the final one is turned.”
—Vanessa Lillie, bestselling author of Blood Sisters

“A vivid and compelling story of a family, a community, and a young woman still coming to terms with her grief as she sets out to uncover the truth about her missing sister. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down.”
—Jane Pek, author of The Verifiers

“Another Name for Red is the haunting story of a family, nearly broken in the aftermath of a daughter’s disappearance. Blaeser-Wardzala writes with fierce intelligence about desire and obsession, survival and surrender, alienation and—through absence and grief—the possibility of repair. A remarkable story of home and heartbreak, Another Name for Red is as tender in its love for its characters as it is unsparing in its portrayal of the forces that fail them.”
—Eliana Ramage, author of To the Moon and Back

“This novel held me tightly from page one with its brilliantly crafted story of violence, consequences, alienation, and corrupted desire. But it wasn’t until it let me go that I understood the promises it had silently made and solemnly kept. Another Name for Red showed up to put mending stitches into a wide rip in the world.”
—Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic

“Amber Blaeser-Wardzala’s Another Name for Red is a dynamic and daring debut novel. It’s at once a heart-thrumming mystery, a moving reckoning of the generational harms perpetrated against Native Americans, and a revelation of the ways young women must navigate the perils of male power. It’s also a revelatory testament to the sustaining force of native culture. The book’s characters are indelible, none more so than its complicated and compelling heroine Middle Sister. This is ambitious, important work by a writer with great heart and the talent to match.”
—Mitchell S. Jackson, author of The Residue Years

“The author’s character work satisfies … [with] vivid supporting characters such as the sisters’ dry-witted grandmother… . An unsparing but hope-filled tale of the ripple effects caused by violence against Indigenous women.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Blaeser-Wardzala’s story in Never Whistle at Night was a knockout, and Another Name for Red proves that was no fluke. Gripping from the first pages and deeply affecting by the last, this is a debut will leave readers buzzing.”
—Debutiful

Amber Blaeser-Wardzala is an Anishinaabe writer, beadwork artist, and jingle dress dancer. She is a first-degree descendant of White Earth Nation in Minnesota and grew up in southeastern Wisconsin. She received her MFA from Arizona State University and was the 2024-25 George Bennett Fellow at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Her writing has appeared in Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, The Iowa Review, Joyland, Passages North, CRAFT, and others. She has received support from Storyknife Writers Retreat, Vermont Studio Center, the Hambidge Center, Ragdale Foundation, Write On Door County, the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands, the Virginia G. Piper Center, and the Women’s National Book Association.

She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Fiction at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, where she lives with her overactive dog, Fern.

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