Louise Erdrich is a highly acclaimed American author, well-known for her fiction writing that often features Native American settings and characters. She is an enrolled member of the Anishinaabe nation, also known as the Chippewa, and has Turtle Mountain Band membership. Erdrich's writing is widely recognized, making her one of the most significant Native writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance.
Born in Little Falls, Minnesota, in 1954, Erdrich was raised mostly in Wahpeton, North Dakota. Her parents were teachers at Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. She has a diverse heritage, with her father being German American and her mother being half Ojibwe and half French American. Before becoming a writer, Erdrich held various jobs, including hoeing sugar beets, farm work, waitressing, short-order cooking, lifeguarding, and construction work. Erdrich attended the Johns Hopkins creative writing program and received fellowships at the McDowell Colony and the Yaddo Colony. After being named writer-in-residence at Dartmouth, she married professor Michael Dorris, and they raised several children together, some of them adopted.
Erdrich is the author of numerous bestselling and award-winning novels, including Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, Tracks, The Bingo Palace, The Antelope Wife, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, and The Round House. She has also written two collections of poetry, Jacklight, and Baptism of Desire. Her fiction has been honored by the National Book Critics Circle and The Los Angeles Times, and her work has been translated into fourteen languages. Several of her short stories have been selected for O. Henry awards and for inclusion in the annual Best American Short Story anthologies.
In addition to her writing, Erdrich is also an independent bookstore owner. She runs Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, which focuses mainly on Native American literature and community in the Twin Cities. The bookstore is a reflection of Erdrich's commitment to promoting Native American culture and literature. Erdrich's work has had a significant impact on Native American literature, and she continues to be a prominent figure in contemporary American literature.
Birchbark House Books
#
Title
Year
Goodreads
Amazon
1
The Birchbark House
1999
2
The Game of Silence
2005
3
The Porcupine Year
2008
4
Chickadee
2012
5
Makoons
2016
Love Medicine Books
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Title
Year
Goodreads
Amazon
1
Love Medicine
1984
2
The Beet Queen
1985
3
Tracks
1988
4
The Bingo Palace
1994
5
Tales of Burning Love
1996
6
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
2000
7
Four Souls
2004
8
The Painted Drum
2005
Standalone Novels
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Title
Year
Goodreads
Amazon
1
The Crown of Columbus
1991
2
The Antelope Wife / Antelope Woman
1998
3
The Master Butchers Singing Club
2003
4
The Plague of Doves
2008
5
Shadow Tag
2010
6
The Round House
2012
7
LaRose
2016
8
Future Home of the Living God
2017
9
The Night Watchman
2020
10
The Sentence
2021
Picture Books
#
Title
Year
Goodreads
Amazon
1
Grandmother's Pigeon
1996
2
The Range Eternal
2002
Non-Fiction Books
#
Title
Year
Goodreads
Amazon
1
Imagination
1982
2
Route Two
1990
3
Conversations with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris
1994
4
The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year
1995
5
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country
2003
Collections
#
Title
Year
Goodreads
Amazon
1
Jacklight
1984
2
Baptism of Desire
1990
3
Original Fire
2003
4
The Red Convertible
2009
Contemporary Literature and the Life of Faith Books
#
Title
Year
Goodreads
Amazon
1
Listening for God Reader, Vol. 1
1994
2
Listening for God, Vol. 2
1996
3
Listening for God, Vol. 3
2000
4
Listening For God, Vol. 4
2002
Louise Erdrich Anthologies
#
Title
Year
Goodreads
Amazon
1
Points of View
1956
2
New Woman, New Fiction
1990
3
The Short Story: 30 Masterpieces
1992
4
Growing Up Native American
1993
5
The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales
1993
6
The Best American Short Stories 1993
1993
7
Touchwood of Ojibway Prose
1994
8
Listening for God Reader, Vol. 1
1994
9
Odd Angles of Heaven: Contemporary Poetry by People of Faith
1994
10
The Adoption Reader: Birth Mothers, Adoptive Mothers, and Adopted Daughters Tell Their Stories
1995
11
Listening for God, Vol. 2
1996
12
Mistresses of the Dark
1998
13
The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction
1999
14
Real Things: An Anthology of Popular Culture in American Poetry
1999
15
Listening for God, Vol. 3
2000
16
Writers on Writing
2001
17
Fourteenth Annual Collection
2001
18
Listening For God, Vol. 4
2002
19
The Eloquent Short Story: An Anthology of Narrative Styles
2004
20
More Stories We Tell
2004
21
Every Day Is a Good Day
2004
22
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink
2007
23
The New Granta Book of the American Short Story
2007
24
Not Normal, Illinois: Peculiar Fictions from the Flyover