Louise Erdrich

Author of The Round House

70+ Works 38,067 Members 1,321 Reviews 130 Favorited

About the Author

Karen Louise Erdrich was born on June 7, 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota. Erdrich grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where both of her parents were employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Erdrich graduated from Dartmouth College in 1976 show more with an AB degree, and she received a Master of Arts in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1979. Erdrich published a number of poems and short stories from 1978 to 1982. In 1981 she married author and anthropologist Michael Dorris, and together they published The World's Greatest Fisherman, which won the Nelson Algren Award in 1982. In 1984 she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Love Medicine, which is an expansion of a story that she had co-written with Dorris. Love Medicine was also awarded the Virginia McCormick Scully Prize (1984), the Sue Kaufman Prize (1985) and the Los Angeles Times Award for best novel (1985). In addition to her prose, Erdrich has written several volumes of poetry, a textbook, children's books, and short stories and essays for popular magazines. She has been the recipient of numerous awards for professional excellence, including the National Magazine Fiction Award in 1983 and a first-prize O. Henry Award in 1987. Erdrich has also received the Pushcart Prize in Poetry, the Western Literacy Association Award, the 1999 World Fantasy Award, and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2006. In 2007 she refused to accept an honorary doctorate from the University of North Dakota in protest of its use of the "Fighting Sioux" name and logo. Erdrich's novel The Round House made the New York Times bestseller list in 2013. Her other New York Times bestsellers include Future Home of the Living God (2017). (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Lo Erdrich, Louis Erdich, Louse Erdrch, Louise Edrich, Louise Erdich, Louis ERDRICH, Erdich Louise, Louise Eldrich, Louise Erdrich, Louisr rrdrich, Louise Ehrdrich, Louise) (ERDRICH, ed. Louise Erdrich, Louise editor Erdrich, Edited by Louise Erdrich

Series

Love Medicine

The Birchbark House

Justice Trilogy

Works by Louise Erdrich

Popular Recent

The Round House (2012) 3,956 copies

Love Medicine (1984) 3,945 copies

The Birchbark House (1999) 2,691 copies

The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003) 2,445 copies

Tracks (1988) 2,200 copies

The Plague of Doves (2008) 2,107 copies

The Night Watchman (2020) — Author — 2,060 copies

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001) 1,998 copies

The Sentence (2021) 1,919 copies

The Beet Queen (1986) 1,768 copies

Future Home of the Living God (2017) 1,445 copies

LaRose (2016) 1,386 copies

The Painted Drum (2005) 1,264 copies

Shadow Tag (2010) 1,048 copies

The Bingo Palace (1994) 1,045 copies

Four Souls (2004) 897 copies

The Antelope Wife (1998) 881 copies

Tales of Burning Love (1996) 760 copies

The Game of Silence (2005) 586 copies

The Crown of Columbus (1991) 530 copies

The Porcupine Year (2008) 384 copies

Native American Literature Course Pack (1994) 366 copies

Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling through the Land of My Ancestors (2003) 350 copies

The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year (1995) 330 copies

Chickadee (2012) 316 copies

The Best American Short Stories 1993 (1993) — Editor — 277 copies

The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008 (2009) 255 copies

Makoons (2016) 195 copies

Grandmother's Pigeon (1996) 135 copies

Jacklight (1996) 130 copies

Original Fire: Selected and New Poems (2003) 115 copies

Baptism of Desire: Poems (1989) 106 copies

The Range Eternal (2002) 78 copies

Conversations with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris (1994) 24 copies

Selected from Love Medicine (1989) 13 copies

Four Souls / Tracks (2004) 7 copies

The Flower {short story} 6 copies

The Years of My Birth 5 copies

Jahr der Wunder: Roman (2023) 4 copies

El fantasma de las palabras (2022) 4 copies

L’anno che bruciammo i fantasmi (2023) 3 copies

Historias De Amor Ardente (Em Portuguese do Brasil) (2000) 2 copies

El último informe del padre Damien (Ficciones) (2003) 2 copies

Le Mooz 2 copies

Erdrich, Louise Archive 2 copies

“I Was Sleeping When the Black Oaks Move” 1 copy

A Wedge of Shade 1 copy

הבית העגול 1 copy

The Birchbark House by Erdrich, Louise (1900) Hardcover 1 copy

I'm a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy 1 copy

The Hollow Children 1 copy

ERD El último informe del padre Damien 1 copy

Il guardiano notturno 1 copy

Sentence, The 1 copy

“Grief” 1 copy

Commemorative 1 copy

“Dear John Wayne” 1 copy

The Leap 1 copy

Saint Marie 1 copy

The Stone 1 copy

Turn Signals: My Winter Babies (2003) 1 copy

Matchimanito 1 copy

The Plague of Doves [short story] 1 copy

Scales {short story} 1 copy

Knives 1 copy

Old Man Potchikoo [short story] 1 copy

WHERE'S THE ERDRICH????? 1 copy

Snares 1 copy

Tracks / Love Medicine / The Painted Drum 1 copy

Master Butchers Singing Club (Paperback, 2005) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 929 copies

The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (1992) — Contributor — 757 copies

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop (2012) — Contributor — 563 copies

A World of Ideas : Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our… (1989) — Interviewee — 550 copies

Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink (2007) — Contributor — 536 copies

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America (2008) — Contributor — 518 copies

The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: Fifty North American American Stories Since 1970 (1999) — Contributor — 516 copies

The Best American Short Stories 2003 (2003) — Contributor — 471 copies

The Broken Cord (1989) — Foreword — 460 copies

Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from the New York Times (2001) — Contributor — 447 copies

Points of View: Revised Edition (1966) — Contributor — 416 copies

Sisters of the Earth: Women's Prose and Poetry About Nature (1991) — Contributor — 400 copies

You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe (1994) — Introduction — 380 copies

The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales (1993) — Contributor — 370 copies

Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women (1989) — Contributor — 328 copies

The Best American Short Stories 2016 (2016) — Contributor — 264 copies

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (2020) — Contributor — 263 copies

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourteenth Annual Collection (2001) — Contributor — 249 copies

The Best American Short Stories 2015 (2015) — Contributor — 226 copies

The New Granta Book of the American Short Story (2007) — Contributor — 214 copies

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012 (2012) — Contributor — 200 copies

We Are the Stories We Tell (1990) — Contributor — 196 copies

Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories (1991) — Contributor — 194 copies

Fourteen Days: A Collaborative Novel (2022) — Contributor — 193 copies

The Best American Mystery Stories 2005 (2005) — Contributor — 190 copies

The Best American Mystery Stories 2007 (2007) — Contributor — 188 copies

Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases (2020) — Contributor — 187 copies

The Best American Essays 1994 (1994) — Contributor — 181 copies

Aqua Erotica: 18 Stories for a Steamy Bath (2000) — Contributor — 177 copies

Growing Up Native American (1993) — Contributor — 169 copies

Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writings of North America (1997) — Contributor — 166 copies

American Religious Poems: An Anthology (2006) — Contributor — 164 copies

The Best American Short Stories 1988 (1988) — Contributor — 160 copies

Granta 34: Death of a Harvard Man (1990) — Contributor — 159 copies

Granta 27: Death (1989) — Contributor — 153 copies

Granta 41: Biography (1992) — Contributor — 143 copies

Still Wild: Short Fiction of the American West 1950 to the Present (2000) — Contributor — 141 copies

Harper's Anthology of Twentieth Century Native American Poetry (1988) — Contributor — 140 copies

Witches' Brew (2002) — Contributor — 126 copies

The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction (2008) — Contributor — 126 copies

Prize Stories 2001: The O. Henry Awards (2001) — Contributor — 124 copies

Mistresses of the Dark [Anthology] (1998) — Contributor — 122 copies

Deep Down: The New Sensual Writing by Women (1988) — Contributor — 116 copies

Granta 115: The F Word (2011) — Contributor — 113 copies

Granta 38: We're So Happy! (1991) — Contributor — 113 copies

Heart of the Land: Essays on Last Great Places (1994) — Contributor — 106 copies

Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American (1999) — Contributor — 102 copies

American Short Stories (1976) — Contributor, some editions — 95 copies

Who Do You Think You Are?: Stories of Friends and Enemies (1993) — Contributor — 94 copies

Braided Lives: An Anthology of Multicultural American Writing (1991) — Contributor — 90 copies

The Granta Book of the Family (1995) — Contributor — 88 copies

Moccasin Thunder: American Indian Stories for Today (2005) — Contributor — 86 copies

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017 (2017) — Contributor — 85 copies

Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry (2021) — Contributor — 80 copies

Granta 19: More Dirt (1986) — Contributor — 76 copies

It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art (2018) — Contributor — 75 copies

The Best American Short Stories 1983 (1983) — Contributor — 73 copies

Earth Song, Sky Spirit (1993) — Contributor — 69 copies

The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Concise Edition (2003) — Contributor — 68 copies

Anonymous Sex (2022) — Contributor — 67 copies

More Stories We Tell: The Best Contemporary Short Stories by North American Women (2004) — Contributor — 64 copies

Song of the Turtle: American Indian Literature 1974-1994 (1996) — Contributor — 63 copies

That's What She Said: Contemporary Poetry and Fiction by Native American Women (A Midland Book) (1984) — Contributor — 62 copies

Granta 129: Fate (2014) — Contributor — 58 copies

The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story (2021) — Contributor — 56 copies

Nothing But the Truth: An Anthology of Native American Literature (2000) — Contributor — 52 copies

First Person, First Peoples: Native American College Graduates Tell Their Life Stories (1997) — Foreword — 51 copies

The Ecopoetry Anthology (2013) — Contributor — 49 copies

The Best American Poetry 2021 (2021) — Contributor — 48 copies

The Seasons of Women: An Anthology (1995) — Contributor — 46 copies

Lines from a Mined Mind: The Words of John Trudell (2008) — Foreword — 44 copies

Earth Power Coming: Short Fiction in Native American Literature (1983) — Contributor — 35 copies

Ghost Writing: Haunted Tales by Contemporary Writers (2000) — Contributor — 33 copies

Birds in the Hand: Fiction and Poetry about Birds (2004) — Contributor — 33 copies

Mothers and Daughters: An Anthology (1998) — Contributor — 33 copies

Through the Eye of the Deer (1999) — Contributor — 28 copies

Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas (2011) — Contributor — 26 copies

The Lightning Within: An Anthology of Contemporary American Indian Fiction (1991) — Contributor — 25 copies

The New Great American Writers' Cookbook (2003) — Contributor — 21 copies

The Best of the Best American Mystery Stories: The First Ten Years (2014) — Contributor — 21 copies

Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing (2000) — Contributor — 19 copies

Voices Under One Sky: Contemporary Native Literature (1994) — Contributor — 19 copies

A Link with the River (1989) — Preface, some editions — 18 copies

Coming of Age in the 21st Century: Growing Up in America Today (2008) — Contributor — 17 copies

Inheriting the Land: Contemporary Voices from the Midwest (1993) — Contributor — 16 copies

Sovereign Traces Volume 1: Not (Just) (An)Other (2018) — Contributor — 15 copies

Antaeus No. 64/65, Spring/Autumn 1990 - Twentieth Anniversary Issue (1990) — Contributor — 12 copies

Reckonings: Contemporary Short Fiction by Native American Women (2008) — Contributor — 11 copies

Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (2018) — Contributor — 9 copies

Night: A Literary Companion (2009) — Contributor — 8 copies

Bodies Built for Game: The Prairie Schooner Anthology of Contemporary Sports Writing (2019) — Contributor — 6 copies

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 91 • December 2017 (2017) — Contributor — 5 copies

Tagged

20th century (176) American (338) American Indian (205) American literature (428) anthology (1,074) audiobook (134) coming of age (146) contemporary fiction (131) essays (383) family (371) fantasy (152) fiction (5,454) first edition (206) Granta (142) historical fiction (827) indigenous (197) Kindle (132) literary fiction (160) literature (616) magical realism (160) Minnesota (202) mystery (215) Native American (1,506) Native American Literature (309) Native Americans (922) non-fiction (415) North Dakota (574) novel (633) Ojibwe (450) own (201) poetry (478) rape (138) read (372) short stories (1,283) signed (166) to-read (2,862) unread (286) USA (237) women (172) writing (173)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Erdrich, Louise
Legal name: Erdrich, Karen Louise
Birthdate: 1954-06-07
Gender: female
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Little Falls, Minnesota, USA
Places of residence: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Dartmouth, New Hampshire, USA
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Reservation, North Dakota, USA
Education: Dartmouth College (AB|1976)
Johns Hopkins University (MA|Creative Writing|1979)
Occupations: short story writer
poet
novelist
businesswoman
Relationships: Erdrich, Heid E. (sister)
Erdrich, Lise (sister)
Erdrich, Ronald W. (cousin)
Dorris, Michael (husband|divorced)
Organizations: Anishinaabe Nation
Birchbark Books (owner)
Awards and honors: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2021)
Associate Poet Laureate of North Dakota (2005)
Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement Award (1992)
Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement (2009)
Lifetime Achievement Award, Native Writers Circle of The Americas (2000)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998) (show all 25)
National Book Award for Fiction (2012)
American Academy of Poets Prize (1975)
MacDowell Fellowship (1980)
Pushcart Prize (1983)
National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1984, 2016)
Sue Kaufman Prize (1984)
Virginia McCormick Scully Literary Award (1984)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize (1985)
O. Henry Award (1987)
World Fantasy Award (1999)
Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award (2000)
Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction (2006, 2013)
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (2009)
Rough Rider Award (2013)
Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2014)
PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction (2014)
Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction (2015)
Guggenheim Fellowship (1985)
Berresford Prize (2022)
Agent: Andrew Wylie (The Wylie Agency)

Members

Discussions

November 2019: Louise Erdrich in Monthly Author Reads (September 2022)

Group Read, June 2020: Love Medicine in 1001 Books to read before you die (June 2020)

Group Read of The Round House by Erdrich in 75 Books Challenge for 2017 (February 2017)

Louise Erdrich: American Author Challenge in 75 Books Challenge for 2015 (September 2015)

Louise Erdrich series? in Librarything Series (August 2011)

Reviews

The Sentence: A Novel by Louise Erdrich

What a unique book. The characters are great The story take you on this long road solving the mystery of a customer that loves books.

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caanderson | 100 other reviews | Jun 4, 2024 |

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

excellent! A story of the life trials of a native living through the burden of her history, the trials of the pandemic, the trials of the Cheeto years, and the mayhem of Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd. Told with love and warmth and with innumerable turnings to books and their stories- so many of my favourite writers and books are mentioned, and listed in the wonderful bibliography. I'm very much looking forward to reading more of her work. 4.5

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diveteamzissou | 100 other reviews | May 10, 2024 |

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

The Sentence is a contemporary fiction by Native American Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022.

The story takes place over a year, beginning in Minneapolis on All Souls Day in November 2019 and finishing in 2020. The main character Tookie is an Ojibwe woman who works in a bookstore. Her love for books and literature began while imprisoned for stealing and transporting a dead body over state lines for a grieving friend. During her prison sentence she is given a dictionary and becomes an avid reader, a love that permeates each part of the book.

One of Tookie’s regular customers, Flora, dies on All Souls Day and refuses to leave the bookstore, her ghost persistently haunting Tookie. During the year that follows Tookie must work out how to put Flora’s ghost to rest, along with balancing her relationship with her partner Pollux and his niece Hetta, and negotiating the traumas of the COVID pandemic and the rioting and mayhem following the murder of George Floyd and the BlackLivesMatter protests.

I struggled to get on with the first part of this book as it made a rather dramatic shift in tone and genre from a mad dash and humorous adventure with Tookie stealing the body, to a much slower paced more reflective story as the ghost tale unfolds. I’m also not a huge fan of ghost stories, but the thing that sucks you into this story is the larger than life Tookie herself with her wry humour, cultural wisdom, groundedness, and her love for her family. I loved her relationship with Pollux with their sharing of food expressing their deep feelings and connection, and with their wholehearted supportiveness of each other.

The other thing that was difficult as a reader was the nearness of the events. This would probably be easier to read five or ten years later but the Pandemic and events of 2020 still feel very fresh, like some global communal trauma that so many people are still scarred by. Aside from the obvious deaths and illness, there was the impact of the isolation and lock downs, the huge fear and uncertainties projected daily into our lives with constantly changing rules and restrictions, and the suffering people experienced at being unable to visit their sick in hospital or the elderly in nursing homes, attend family funerals or the births of babies. It was like living through a science fiction movie or a huge social experiment, the impacts of which are still not fully understood. I am glad Erdrich has been brave enough to record some of this but 2020 was definitely a hell of a year that many people would love to have woken up from and discovered it was all a bad dream.

This was an insightful, interesting read with a lovable main character.… (more)

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mimbza | 100 other reviews | May 8, 2024 |