By AJ Eversole

Osiyo, everyone! Legendary Frybread Drive-In is finally here, and now we’re sharing conversations with the anthology’s contributors. This discussion explores how Sandy June’s, the famous drive-in that can be found across all reservations, came to life and the deep cultural significance woven throughout these interconnected stories.

Creation & Inspiration

What inspired the concept of Sandy June’s Legendary Frybread Drive-In?

Cynthia Leitich Smith: A combination of memory and opportunity! I carry memories of teenage summertime meetups at small-town drive-ins, especially on days spent with cousins.

How did you decide to make the drive-in the connecting element for all the stories?

Cynthia Leitich Smith: A drive-in restaurant is an intergenerational space that harkens to nostalgia while still accessible and attractive to the young. It’s not specifically tribally culturally grounded, but the sort of destination no one would be surprised to find on a rez. It’s also fluid, literally blending into the outdoors, which lent itself to a sprawly setting that includes a lake, campgrounds, outdoor performance venue, and secret spots. Beyond that, a drive-in is a social space that literally feeds its community. It was a fit.

What’s the significance behind the name “Sandy June” and that iconic green-and-gold neon sign?

Cynthia Leitich Smith: “Sandy” and “June” are both gender-neutral names, which serves as an umbrella for the mixed-gender, legendary grandparents who are the hosts and guiding force of the drive-in. I originally suggested “Davy” and “June” but the millennial and Gen Z contributing authors informed me that, due to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie franchise, that name was too evocative of “Davy Jones,” which has an infinitely more grim connotation. Green and gold are summery colors that almost blend into nature, which is the appropriate vibe.

Cultural Significance: A Magical Place That Appears When Needed

In the stories, Sandy June’s appears differently to each character who needs it – would you talk about this worldbuilding element?

Jen Ferguson: In my story, I was thinking about how important language is and how hard it is for those of us who learned something other than our traditional languages first to learn the language. But that’s the thing: Berlin has also had to travel across the country for this immersive Southern Heritage Michif immersive that I imagined and wished existed for teens. She’s missing home and her community deeply. So Sandy June’s becomes a place where she can, for a night, have both things at once: language and home community.

AJ Eversole: What I think is special about this anthology’s connection to speculative fiction is that it challenges the colonial ideas of boundaries and geography. Instead it envisions Indigenous young people who navigate contemporary relationships while maintaining cultural connections. The fact it exists in multiple spaces is the ultimate sense of community that most Indigenous people hold in high regard.

Generational Connections: The Role of Elders

What role do Elders play at Sandy June’s?

Jen Ferguson: When this idea happened and was revealed to all of the authors I knew immediately that Berlin would feel stressed about her language abilities in front of an Elder, but I also love that’s how she learns something. Because we learn from the people who surround us and the people who carry our languages and our stories forward—plus, each of us authors got to name our story Elder grandparent after people we love, if we wanted to. Joyce, my paternal grandmother, is a woman I did not know well enough because she died when I was in middle school. She had so many stories I never got to hear, learn and enjoy, and wish I had so much more time with her. Now, she’s living and sharing and caring for the people at Sandy June’s, and that makes me smile.

Kate Hart: My main characters, like me, have grown up disconnected from community. The first time I went to a stomp, I didn’t know a single person there, but an elder saw my family sitting alone and invited us to eat with them. After she heard my story, she patted my hand and said, “Welcome home.” I didn’t know I needed to hear that, but it changed my entire perspective and I wanted to recreate a similar experience for my characters.

The Menu: Food at Sandy June’s

How do your characters’ relationships with foods reflect their identities?

Christine Hartman Derr: For Mariah, who lives as an at-large (off-reservation) citizen, frybread offers a taste of home. Despite the fact that it’s a product of colonialism, this food signals she’s among her Native community. In this case, frybread offers a physical connection, reminding her of all the places she’s had it and giving her space to reflect on why it’s meaningful.

Jen Ferguson: So I grew up eating bannock, mostly when camping. Basically it’s a very similar recipe to most frybread (no yeast), and as kids, we’d wrap it around a stick like a doughy worm and cook it over the fire.

While you can fry bannock, the way I grew up eating it was never deep fried, only baked. What I love about Christine’s answer is that while Berlin wouldn’t have grown up with the deep-fried stuff either, she knows the smell intimately, knows that words are slippery things.

What other Indigenous foods appear on Sandy June’s menu in your stories?

Christine Hartman Derr: Strawberries, or ani in Cherokee, appear in Momentum. I chose strawberries to wink at a traditional Cherokee story about the first strawberries which is centered on forgiveness, journeys, and reconciliation. Mariah has moved frequently, and feels disconnected from herself. Sandy June’s reminds her–through strawberries, frybread, and new friends–that she always has access to her truest self; she carries it with her. In this case, the reconciliation strawberries symbolize is with herself.

Kate Hart: Southeastern tribes only have a few signature foods, so even though I’m not personally a huge fan (don’t tell anyone), I had to include pashofa and grape dumplings.

Food as Storytelling

The foods at Sandy June’s serve as more than sustenance—they become bridges between past and present, between individual identity and community belonging. Whether it’s the complex relationship with frybread as both a product of colonialism and a symbol of resilience, or the way traditional foods like strawberries carry story and ceremony into contemporary spaces, the drive-in’s menu reflects the layered experiences of Indigenous youth navigating their identities.

As these stories show, Sandy June’s isn’t just a restaurant, it’s a place where culture is preserved, shared, and celebrated through the simple but profound act of breaking bread together. The magical realism that allows the drive-in to appear when and where it’s needed most reflects a deeper truth about Indigenous communities that home and belonging aren’t bound by geography, but by the connections we nurture and the traditions we carry forward.

Next week, we’ll continue our conversation with the contributors, exploring how Sandy June’s builds community connections and challenges stereotypes while imagining Indigenous futures.

Cynsational Notes:

Jen Ferguson (she/her) is Métis/Michif and white Canadian settler, an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD in English and Creative Writing. She believes writing, teaching, and beading are political acts. Her debut YA novel The Summer of Bitter and Sweet (Heartdrum/HarperCollins) received seven starred reviews, won the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature–Text, is a 2023 Stonewall Honor Book, an NPR Best Book of 2022, a School Library Journal Best Young Adult Book of 2022, a Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction of 2022, a 2022 Horn Book FanFare Book, a Kirkus 2022 Best Young Adult Book, a 2023 White Pine Award Nominee, a 2022 Young Adult Golden Poppy Finalist and a 2023 Morris Award Finalist.

Cynthia Leitich Smith is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author and anthologist of more than 20 books for young readers. She was named a 2025 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Candidate, the NSK Neustadt Laureate, Texas Literary Hall of Fame inductee, and winner of the Southern Miss Medallion for Outstanding Contributions in Children’s Literature. Cynthia has been named to deliver the 2026 ALSC Children’s Literature Lecture. She is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books, and served as the Katherine Paterson Inaugural Chair for the children’s-YA writing MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Texas.

Kate Hart is the author of After The Fall (Macmillan, 2017) and a contributor to multiple anthologies including Never Whistle At Night (Penguin RandomHouse 2024), Legendary Frybread Drive-In (Heartdrum, 2025), Out Now (Inkyard, 2020), and Body Talk (Algonquin). Before becoming a writer, she earned degrees in Spanish and history at Hendrix College, taught preschool and middle school, and wrote grants for a local nonprofit. She helped run YA Highway, a three-time pick for Writer’s Digest’s “101 Best Websites for Writers,” and has appeared at literature festivals across the country. Born in Oklahoma and raised in Arkansas, Kate is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation with Choctaw heritage and a member of the Tulsa chapter of Matriarch. She lives with her family on a mountainside outside of Fayetteville, where she co-owns Natural State Treehouses and sells beadwork and fiber arts as Kate Hart Studio. Her literary work is represented by Alexandra Levick at Writers House.

Christine Hartman Derr is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She’s a graduate from VCFA’s Writing for Children MFA program, where she won the Revisionary Award, Candlewick Picture Book Prize, T.A. Barron Prize for Nature Writing, and was selected as a DEI Fellow and a Center for Arts and Social Justice Fellow. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Florida State University. Christine writes across age markets and genres in the KidLit realm, and is currently working on revising her middle grade novel in verse. Her work includes themes on identity, belonging, and sharing the Cherokee language. She runs the blog Paw Prints in the Sink and has written articles for regional publications. Originally from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Christine lives in Tennessee with her spouse, children, and a rambunctious crew of lovable pets. Christine is represented by Sara Crowe of Sara Crowe Literary.

AJ Eversole, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, grew up in rural Oklahoma where her imagination flourished through endless games of make believe. A graduate of Oklahoma State University, she is a contributor to the forthcoming anthology Legendary Frybread Drive-In (Heartdrum, 2025) and Beyond The Glittering World (Torrey House Press, 2025) and aspires to traditional publication. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and son. Visit her on Threads & Instagram: @ajeversole