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Louise Erdrich 1954-. "People in [Native American] families make everything into a story . . . People just sit and the stories start coming, one after another. I suppose that when you grow up constantly hearing the stories rise, break, and fall, it gets into you somehow."
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Louise Erdrich1954- "People in [Native American] families make everything into a story . . . People just sit and the stories start coming, one after another. I suppose that when you grow up constantly hearing the stories rise, break, and fall, it gets into you somehow." From and intervierw with Michael Schumacher in Writer's Digest
Short Biography • Born in 1954, in Little Falls to aFrench Ojibwe mother and German American father • Member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa • Grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota • Parents worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs • Entered Dartmouth University in 1972 where she met author,Michael Dorris • Taught poetry and writing to young people through parttime position at the State Arts Council of North Dakota • Worked a variety of low-paying jobs, from waitressing to weighing trucks on the interstate • Received an M.A. degree from the John Hopkins University in 1979 • Editor of the Boston Indian Council newspaper, The Circle. • Became writer-in-residence at Dartmouth and Dorris in 1981 • Began writing collaboratively with husband. • First book of poetry, Jacklight, was published in 1984, and was followed by a second collection, Baptism of Fire, in 1989 • Husband, Michael Dorris committed suicide in 1997 • Lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.
Major Themes Draws on her Chippewa heritage to examine • Family • Sexual relationships • Full and mixed blood Native Americans and their struggle with questions of identity in a culture dominated by white European ethnicities
Major Works • Novels Imagination - 1980 Love Medicine - 1984 Jacklight- 1984 The Beet Queen - 1986 Tracks - 1988 Baptism of Desire - 1989 The Crown of Columbus - 1991 (with Michael Dorris) The Bingo Palace - Erdrich, Louise1994 The Blue Jay’s Dance: A Birth Year - 1995 Tales of Burning Love - 1996 Grandmother’s Pidgeon - 1996 The Antelope Wife – 1998 The last report on the miracles at Little No Horse - 2001 The Master Butcher's Singing Club: A Novel.- 2003 The Painted Drum - 2005 • PoetryJacklight, Holt, 1984. Baptism of Desire, Harper, 1989.
Awards and Achievements • Best First Fiction Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters • John Simon Guggenheim Award, 1985. • Novel, Love Medicine won the National Book Critics Circle Award • Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year (Prose - Children's Literature) award, 2000 (for The Birchbark House.