Editing Louise Erdrich (section)

==Work==
In 1979, she wrote "The World's Greatest Fisherman",<ref>{{Cite web|last=Erdrich|first=Louise|date=|title="The World's Greatest Fisherman"|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Worlds-Greatest-Fisherman|access-date=October 4, 2020|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> a short story about June Kashpaw, a divorced Ojibwe woman whose death by [[hypothermia]] brought her relatives home to a fictional North Dakota reservation for her funeral. She wrote this while "barricaded in the kitchen."<ref name=":0" /> At her husband's urging, she submitted it to the Nelson Algren Short Fiction competition in 1982 for which it won the $5,000 prize,<ref name=":0" /> and eventually it became the first chapter of her debut novel, ''[[Love Medicine]]'', published by [[Holt, Rinehart, and Winston]] in 1984.<ref name="Interview" />

"When I found out about the prize I was living on a farm in New Hampshire near the college I'd attended," Erdrich told an interviewer. "I was nearly broke and driving a car with bald tires. My mother knitted my sweaters, and all else I bought at thrift stores ... The recognition dazzled me. Later, I became friends with [[Studs Terkel]] and [[Kay Boyle]], the judges, toward whom I carry a lifelong gratitude. This prize made an immense difference in my life."<ref>{{Cite web|title=A look back at winners of the Nelson Algren Short Story Award|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-past-algren-winners-0728-20190721-hspatf3w4ze73nmku6piiueruu-story.html|last=Crowder|first=Courtney|date=July 21, 2019|website=Chicago Tribune|access-date=July 21, 2019}}</ref>

''Love Medicine'' won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award.<ref name="Author: Louise Erdrich">{{cite web|title=Louise Erdrich: About the Author: HarperCollins Publishers|url=http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=2905|date=March 24, 2010|publisher=Harpercollins.com|access-date=October 23, 2013}}</ref> It is the only debut novel ever to receive that honor.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Streitfeld|first=David|date=July 13, 1997|title="Sad Story"|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/13/sad-story/b1344c1d-3f2a-455f-8537-cb4637888ffc/|newspaper=Washington Post|volume=|pages=|via=}}</ref> Erdrich later turned ''Love Medicine'' into a tetralogy that includes ''The Beet Queen'' (1986), ''[[Tracks (novel)|Tracks]]'' (1988), and ''[[The Bingo Palace]]'' (1994). It has also been featured on the National [[Advanced Placement]] Test for Literature.<ref>{{cite web|title=AP Literature: Titles from Free Response Questions since 1971|url=http://mseffie.com/AP/APtitles.html|date=May 13, 2013|publisher=Mseffie.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141130032924/http://mseffie.com/AP/APtitles.html|archive-date=November 30, 2014|access-date=October 23, 2013}}</ref>

In the early years of their marriage, Erdrich and Michael Dorris often collaborated on their work, saying they plotted the books together, "talk about them before any writing is done, and then we share almost every day, whatever it is we've written" but "the person whose name is on the books is the one who's done most of the primary writing.<ref name=":1" />" They got started with "domestic, romantic stuff" published under the shared pen name of "Milou North" (Michael + Louise + where they live).<ref name=":0" />

During the publication of ''Love Medicine'', Erdrich produced her first collection of poems, ''Jacklight'' (1984), which highlights the struggles between Native and non-Native cultures, as well as celebrating family, ties of kinship, autobiographical meditations, monologues, and love poetry. She incorporates elements of Ojibwe myths and legends.<ref name="Louise Erdrich 2010"/> Erdrich continues to write poems, which have been included in her collections.

Erdrich is best known as a novelist, and has published a dozen award-winning and best-selling novels.<ref name="Louise Erdrich 2010" /> She followed ''Love Medicine'' with ''The Beet Queen'' (1986), which continued her technique of using [[multiperspectivity|multiple narrators]]<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/20/books/books-of-the-times-293786.html|title=Books of the Times|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|date=August 20, 1986|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 6, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and expanded the fictional reservation universe of ''Love Medicine'' to include the nearby town of Argus, North Dakota. The action of the novel takes place mostly before [[World War II]]. [[Leslie Marmon Silko]] accused Erdrich's ''The Beet Queen'' of being more concerned with [[Postmodern literature|postmodern]] technique than with the political struggles of Native peoples.<ref>[[Susan Castillo (academic)|Susan Castillo]] "Postmodernism, Native American Literature, and the Real: The Silko-Erdrich Controversy" in ''Notes from the Periphery: Marginality in North American Literature and Culture'' New York: Peter Lang, 1995. 179–190.</ref>

''[[Tracks (novel)|Tracks]]'' (1988) goes back to the early 20th century at the formation of the reservation. It introduces the [[trickster]] figure of Nanapush, who owes a clear debt to Ojibwe figure [[Nanabozho]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gross |first=Lawrence W. |date=Summer 2005 |title=The Trickster and World Maintenance: An Anishinaabe Reading of Louise Erdrich's Tracks |url=http://onCampus.richmond.edu/faculty/ASAIL/SAIL2/173.html |journal=Studies in American Indian Literatures |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=48–66 |doi=10.1353/ail.2005.0070 |s2cid=161821098 |issn=1548-9590 |access-date= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423103851/http://oncampus.richmond.edu/faculty/ASAIL/SAIL2/173.html |archive-date=April 23, 2008}}</ref> There are many studies of the trickster figure in Erdrich's novels. ''Tracks'' shows early clashes between traditional ways and the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. ''[[The Bingo Palace (Novel)|The Bingo Palace]]'' (1994), set in the 1980s, describes the effects of a casino and a factory on the reservation community. ''Tales of Burning Love'' (1997) finishes the story of Sister Leopolda, a recurring character from all the previous books, and introduces a new set of European-American people into the reservation universe.
	 
''The Antelope Wife'' (1998), Erdrich's first novel after her divorce from Dorris, was the first of her novels to be set outside the continuity of the previous books.<ref name="Stookey1999"/> Erdrich heavily revised the book in 2009 and published the revision as ''The Antelope Woman'' in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Antelope Woman by Louise Erdrich |url=https://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/antelope-woman-louise-erdrich |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=Bookshop Santa Cruz |language=en |archive-date=September 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240917192712/https://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/antelope-woman-louise-erdrich |url-status=dead }}</ref>

She subsequently returned to the reservation and nearby towns. She has published five novels since 1998 dealing with events in that fictional area. Among these are ''[[Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse|The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse]]'' (2001) and ''[[The Master Butchers Singing Club]]'' (2003). Both novels have geographic and character connections with ''The Beet Queen''.  In 2009, Erdrich was a [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction|Pulitzer Prize]] finalist for ''[[The Plague of Doves (novel)|The Plague of Doves]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/louise-erdrich|title=Finalist: ''The Plague of Doves'', by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)|website=www.pulitzer.org|language=en|access-date=November 6, 2019}}</ref> and a National Book Award finalist for ''[[The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-last-report-on-the-miracle-at-little-no-horse/|title=The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse|website=National Book Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=November 6, 2019}}</ref> ''The Plague of Doves'' focuses on the historical lynching of four Native people wrongly accused of murdering a White family, and the effect of this injustice on the following generations. Her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel ''[[The Night Watchman (novel)|The Night Watchman]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/louise-erdrich|title=The 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction|website=www.pulitzer.org|language=en|access-date=September 22, 2021}}</ref> (2020) concerns a campaign to defeat the 'termination bill' (introduced by Senator [[Arthur Vivian Watkins]]), and Erdrich acknowledged her sources and its inspiration being her maternal grandfather's life.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Louise|first=Erdrich|date=|title=Louise Erdrich American author|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louise-Erdrich#ref1164386|access-date=October 4, 2020|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> Her most recent novel, ''[[The Sentence (novel)|The Sentence]]'', tells the fictional story of a haunting at Erdrich's Minneapolis bookstore, set against the backdrop of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], [[murder of George Floyd|George Floyd's murder]], and the [[George Floyd protests|resulting protests]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/books/review/the-sentence-louise-erdrich.html | title=A New Novel by Louise Erdrich Haunted by Covid and George Floyd's Death | work=The New York Times | date=November 9, 2021 | last1=Jones | first1=Malcolm }}</ref>

She also writes for younger audiences; she has a children's picture book ''Grandmother's Pigeon,'' and her children's book ''[[The Birchbark House]]'', was a National Book Award finalist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-birchbark-house/|title=The Birchbark House|website=National Book Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=November 6, 2019}}</ref>  She continued the series with ''[[The Game of Silence]]'', winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scottodell.com/the-scott-odell-award|title=Scott O'Dell|last=O'Dell|first=Scott|website=www.scottodell.com|language=en-US|access-date=November 6, 2019}}</ref> ''[[The Porcupine Year]]'', ''[[Chickadee (novel)|Chickadee]]'', and ''Makoons''.

===Nonfiction and teaching===
In addition to fiction and poetry, Erdrich has published nonfiction. ''The Blue Jay's Dance'' (1995) is about her pregnancy and the birth of her third child.<ref>{{Cite web |date=n.d. |title=The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year by Louise Erdrich |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780060171322 |access-date=2023-05-13 |website=www.publishersweekly.com}}</ref> ''Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country'' (2003) traces her travels in northern Minnesota and Ontario's lakes following the birth of her youngest daughter.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich/about.htm|title=About Louise Erdrich|author=Department of English|publisher=University of Illinois|date=2001|access-date=May 22, 2016|archive-date=June 2, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602004647/http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich/about.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Influence and style===
Her heritage from both parents is influential in her life and prominent in her work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/louise-erdrich|title=Louise Erdrich|date=May 12, 2018|publisher=Poetry Foundation|access-date=May 13, 2018}}</ref> Although many of Erdrich's works explore her Native American heritage, her novel ''[[The Master Butchers Singing Club]]'' (2003) featured the European, specifically German, side of her ancestry. The novel includes stories of a [[World War I]] veteran of the German Army and is set in a small North Dakota town.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/books/her-own-private-north-dakota.html|title=Her Own Private North Dakota|last=Allen|first=Brooke|date=February 9, 2003|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 6, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award. 
	 	
Erdrich's interwoven series of novels have drawn comparisons with [[William Faulkner]]'s [[Yoknapatawpha]] novels.  Like Faulkner's, Erdrich's successive novels created multiple narratives in the same fictional area and combined the tapestry of local history with current themes and modern consciousness.<ref>See, e.g., Powell's Books (book review), ''The Christian Science Monitor'', August 2, 2004</ref>