Louise Erdrich: Chosen By The Characters

By Tyler Ford

Erdrich's List of Published Works.

  Books:
The Antelope Wife (1998)

Grandmother's Pigeon (1996)

Tales of Burning Love. (1996)

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

The Bingo Palace (1994)

Love Medicine (1993) (New and Expanded Version)

The Crown of Columbus (1991), written by Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris

Route 2 (U.S. Highway 2: Description and travel) (1990) written by Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris

Baptism of Desire: Poems (1990)

The Beet Queen (1989)

Tracks (1989)

Love Medicine (1989)

Poems:

"Bidwell Ghost." Prairie Schooner. Fall 1989: 13-14.

"Birth." Paris Review. Summer 1989: 221.

"The Fence." Paris Review. Summer 1989: 220.

"The Flood." Prairie Schooner. Fall 1989: 11-12.

"The Return." Prairie Schooner. Fall 1989: 12-13.

"The Ritual." Massachusetts Review. Autumn 1989: 433-4.

Short Stories:

"Fleur's Luck." Georgia Review. Winter 1993: 659-63.

"The Plunge of the Brave." New England Review. Winter 1993: 57-70.

“ My characters choose me, and once they do, it’s like standing in a field hearing echoes” (Said by Louise Erdrich, The Norton Anthology of Poetry). Louise Erdrich, known for her fictional poetry said this passage about some of the characters she created in her 1986 novel, The Beet Queen.  Most of Erdrich’s poetry is based on her Native American heritage. The poetry is based on their life styles, and many obstacles they have to overcome. In her poetry, Erdrich brings the Indian culture to life. Mark Anthony Rolo had said,” She is the first writer to humanize the Indians” (www.startribune.com/stories/384/912732.html)

            Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota on June 7, 1954. Erdrich was the first born of seven children, therefore, taking on a lot of responsibility. Erdrich’s father is of German decent, and her mother is a Chippewa Indian. Erdrich considers herself Chippewa. Erdrich and her family are part of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (A band is smaller than a tribe).  She grew up in North Dakota, where her parents worked for the Wahpeton Indian School. In 1972, Erdrich attended Dartmouth College and took classes in Native American studies. In 1976, she received a B.A at the college. Erdrich also received a master’s degree in creative writing at John Hopkins University in 1979. While attending Dartmouth University, Erdrich met her first husband Michael Dorris. The two married in 1981, and had at least sic children. Dorris and Erdrich separated in the early 90’s and in 1997, Dorris committed suicide because of charges of abusing one of his children. Erdrich is currently remarried, has a new baby, and is still writing poetry.

            Erdrich has won many Awards. In 1985, she won the John Simon Guggenheim award, and also the Best First Fiction Award from the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters. Also, she won the Woodcraft Circle Writer of the Year (Prose- Children’s Literature) award, in 2000 for her book The Birchbark House. And lastly, she won the Nelson Algren fiction competition.  Louise Erdrich has had many obstacles in her life, but she always overcomes them, no matter how big they are.