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Louise Erdrich: A Profile
Louise Erdrich is an American author whose work includes novels, poetry, memoir, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized tribe of the Anishinaabe.
Born June 7, 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota, Erdrich was the oldest of seven children born to Ralph Erdrich, a German American, and Rita, a Chippewa. While Erdrich was a child, her father paid her a nickel for every story she wrote. Erdrich attended Dartmouth College from 1972 to 1976. During this time, she began to look into her own ancestry, which inspired her to draw from it for her literary work, such as poems, short stories, and novels.
Over the years, Erdrich has won numerous awards for her work, including a 1975 American Academy of Poets Prize, the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award for “Love Medicine;” a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas; and the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Night Watchman,” amongst others.
When asked in an interview if writing is a lonely life for her, Erdrich replied, "Strangely, I think it is. I am surrounded by an abundance of family and friends and yet I am alone with the writing. And that is perfect." Erdrich lives in Minneapolis.
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17 Collection Items
- Louise Erdrich’s novel ''LaRose” wins the National Book Critics Circle Prize for Fiction
Upon the announcement that Louise Erdrich’s novel ''LaRose” won the National Book Critics Circle Prize for Fiction, MPR’s Tom Crann presents an audio clip of Erdrich discussing book during a Thread live event. “LaRose” is set in an Ojibwe community in North Dakota and it opens with a brutal tragedy. A man shoots and kills his best friend's five-year-old son in a hunting accident. The guilt is so heavy that the man and his wife decide to give their own son, LaRose, to the bereaved couple.
- Louise Erdrich on writing: 'Getting older makes you cut to the chase'
MPR’s Kerri Miller talks with Minnesota author Louise Erdrich about her novel “LaRose” at a Fitzgerald Theater event.
- Louise Erdrich puts together her first-ever show of visual art
MPR’s Marianne Combs reports on Internationally acclaimed author Louise Erdrich’s first-ever show of visual art, titled "Asynchronous Reading." Combs interviews Erdrich about items in the exhibit.
- The Daily Circuit: Louise Erdrich on "The Round House"
With the announcement of author Louise Erdrich winning National Book Award for book “The Round House,” The Daily Circuit presents a rebroadcast of a 2012 interview with Erdrich about her book. The novel tells the story of a crime on a North Dakota reservation in 1988.
- Louise Erdrich talks about award-winning novel "The Round House"
On this MPR News Presents program, Minnesota author Louise Erdrich speaks at Concordia University in St. Paul about her National Book Award-winning book, "The Round House," and her love of writing. Erdrich also reads from the book.
- Daily Circuit highlights Louise Erdrich winning National Book Prize
Minnesota author Louise Erdrich won a big literary prize last night. She was given the National Book Award for fiction for her newest novel, "Roundhouse." In an interview excerpt, Erdrich talks about the need for solitude as she develops her characters. Segment also includes hosts discussing listener email and feedback about various news items.
- The Daily Circuit: Louise Erdrich discusses her book "The Round House"
On this Daily Circuit program, MPR’s Kerri Miller talks with Native American author Louise Erdrich about her book “The Round House.” Erdrich describes the writing decisions and background to book.
- "The Master Butchers Singing Club" - From the page to the stage
MPR’s Kerri Miller interviews Minnesota writer Louise Erdrich about The Guthrie Theater production of Erdrich's novel The Master Butchers Singing Club. Francesca Zambello, internationally renowned opera and theater director, is also interviewed.
- Louise Erdrich across the decades
The inaugural formal meeting of The Kerri Miller Book Club presents an interview with Louise Erdrich, twenty-five years after Erdrich's novel "Love Medicine" was published and became a bestseller. Program recorded before an audience in Minneapolis.
- Louise Erdrich tells a tale of murder, vengeance, and redemption in her book "A Plague of Doves"
One of Minnesota's best-known novelists, Louise Erdrich, discusses her book “A Plague of Doves,” a story that weaves together the murder of a family, a lynching of men innocent of the crime, and the tangled relationships of Ojibwe and whites living around the dying town of Pluto, North Dakota.