Sherman Alexie was considered a successful writer starting in the early 1990s, with a significant boost to his career around 1992 when his first collection of poetry and prose, "The Business of Fancydancing," was published and received critical acclaim. This was followed by other important publications: his breakthrough short story collection "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" in 1993, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for best first book of fiction, and his first novel "Reservation Blues" in 1995, which won the American Book Award in 1996. By the mid-1990s, he was recognized by Granta magazine as one of the best American novelists under 40, marking his establishment as a respected literary figure.