return to home
 
 
          Bookmark and Share        Email
 
  This Week's Recommendations    |     Hardcovers Coming Soon    |     Paperbacks Coming Soon    |     Recent Hardcovers    |     Recent Paperbacks
   Genres   |    Settings   |    Time Periods   |    Themes   |    Favorites   |    Award Winners   |    Book Finder   |    Surprise Me!   |    Tag cloud
   Recent Interviews    |     All Interviews    |     Author Bios    |     Author Websites    |     Pronunciation Guide
   Free Newsletters   |    Wordplay   |    Book Giveaway   |    BookBrowse Polls   |    Literary Quotes   |    Personality Quiz   |    Gift Membership
   Recent Membership Magazines    |     Magazine Archives     |     Invite the Author    |     My Reading List    |     First Impressions    |     My Account
   Editor's Blog    |     Best Reader Reviews    |     Book News    |     Meet the Reviewers    |     Stay In Touch
   About Us   |    Tour   |    Member Benefits   |    Join   |    Gift Memberships   |    Library Subscriptions   |    FAQ   |    People Say   |    Contact Us
Search BookBrowse
Suggested Links
Books by this Author:
In Detail:
The Plague of Doves (2008)
The Game of Silence (2005)
The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003)
The Last Report On The Miracles At Little No Horse (2001)

Others:
The Red Convertible (2009)
The Porcupine Year (2008)
The Painted Drum (2005)

Other Links:
Free Twice-Monthly Newsletters
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

Win This Book!


Cherries in Winter jacket

Cherries in Winter
by Suzan Colón


'A charming, satisfying memoir of food, family and overcoming hard times.'

Enter To Win Now!


wordplay
Solve this clue:
"M H While T S S"

and be entered to win....
New Author
Interviews
Peter Ackroyd
A short essay by Peter Ackroyd about his 2009 novel The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, discusses her Booker shortlisted novel at the the London bookstore, Daunt Books (3 part video)
William Kamkwamba
A short video about William Kamkwamba, author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Louis Bayard
An essay by Louis Bayard about The Black Tower, an historical mystery set in the early 19th century
   Author Biography

Browse a biography and interview of Louise Erdrich.
Plus: Book summary, excerpts and reviews at BookBrowse.com.

Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich Books by this author at BookBrowse

Read Interview

Link to Author's Website
Biography

Louise Erdrich is one of the most gifted, prolific, and challenging of contemporary Native American novelists. Born in 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota, she grew up mostly in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where her parents taught at Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. Her fiction reflects aspects of her mixed heritage: German through her father, and French and Ojibwa through her mother. She worked at various jobs, such as hoeing sugar  beets, farm work, waitressing, short order cooking, lifeguarding, and construction work, before becoming a writer. She attended the Johns Hopkins creative writing program and received fellowships at the McDowell Colony and the Yaddo Colony. After she was named writer-in-residence at Dartmouth, she married professor Michael Dorris and raised several children, some of them adopted. She and Michael became a picture-book husband-and-wife writing team, though they wrote only one truly collaborative novel, The Crown of Columbus (1991). 

The Antelope Wife was published in 1998, not long after her separation from Michael and his subsequent suicide. Some reviewers believed they saw in The Antelope Wife the anguish Erdrich must have felt as her marriage crumbled, but she has stated that she is unconscious of having mirrored any real-life events.

She is the author of a number of award-winning novels, including Love Medicine; The Beet Queen; Tracks; and The Bingo Palace. She also has written two collections of poetry, Jacklight, and Baptism of Desire. Her fiction has been honored by the National Book Critics Circle (1984) and The Los Angeles Times (1985), and has been translated into fourteen languages.

Several of her short stories have been selected for O. Henry awards and for inclusion in the annual Best American Short Story anthologies. The Blue Jay's Dance, a memoir of motherhood, was her first nonfiction work, and her children's book, Grandmother's Pigeon, has been published by Hyperion Press. She lives in Minnesota with her children, who help her run a small independent bookstore called The Birchbark.
This biography was last updated on 04/20/2008.
A note about the biographies
We try to keep BookBrowse's biographies both up to date and accurate. However, with over 1,500 lives to keep track of it's inevitable that some won't be as current or as complete as we would like. So, please help us - if the information about a particular author is out of date, inaccurate or simply very short, and you know of a more complete source, please let us know. Authors and those connected with authors: If you wish to make changes to your bio, please send your complete biography as you would like it displayed so that we replace the old with the new.

Become a Member
One Month Free
Editor's Choice
  •  Nov 19 
  •  Nov 17 
  •  Nov 15 
Nocturnes
Kazuo Ishiguro
One of the most celebrated writers of our time gives us his first cycle of short fiction: five brilliantly etched, interconnected stories in which music is a vivid and essential character.
Invisible
Paul Auster
“One of America’s greatest novelists” dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to date.
The Lacuna
Barbara Kingsolver
In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their...
Chronic City
Jonathan Lethem
The acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude returns with a roar with this gorgeous, searing portrayal of Manhattanites wrapped in their own delusions, desires, and lies.
Manhood for Amateurs
Michael Chabon
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author— "an immensely gifted writer and a magical prose stylist" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)—offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as his acclaimed, award-winning fiction.
Recent Reader Reviews
Zorro by Isabel Allende
Like Robin Hood, Zorro is a story that almost everyone knows, but few have read. The original book by Johnston McCulley is out of print and ... read more
Three Cups of Tea by David O. Relin
I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no ... read more
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
I'm 13 years old and my teacher handed me this book and told me to read and do a report on it. I looked at the cover, saw the title (which made no ... read more
RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Brooklyn Bridge
Karen Hesse
2. The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
3. Three Cups of Tea
David O. Relin, Greg Mortenson
4. A Child Called It
Dave Pelzer
5. The Notebook
Nicholas Sparks
More...
Book Club Recommendations
The Wasted Vigil
by Nadeem Aslam
Paperback (Sep/09)
Graceling
by Kristin Cashore
Paperback (Sep/09)
The Given Day
by Dennis Lehane
Paperback (Sep/09)
The White Mary
by Kira Salak
Paperback (Sep/09)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
The New Global Student
by Maya Frost
           (May/09)
The Book of Illumination
by Mary Ann Winkowski
           (Oct/09)
State by State
by Matt Weiland & Sean Wilsey (editors)
           (Oct/09)
More...
   Most Recent Blog Entries
So Many eReaders, Which to Choose?
Autumn Reading by Elizabeth Strout
It Takes All Kinds of Readers
Steampunk for Beginners by Cherie Priest
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
  Latest BookBrowse News
The 2009 National Book Award Winners (Nov 19 2009)
The winners of the 2009 National Book Awards have been announced at the National Book Foundation's 60th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit... Full Story
Google Settlement Filed (Nov 13 2009)
After two delays, attorneys for the AAP, Authors Guild and Google filed an amended settlement agreement today in an effort to end litigation brought by the... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
BookBrowse Poll
Q: When do you listen to audio books?
I don't listen to audio books
While walking
While doing household chores
While exercising
While working
In the car
At other times
Select Any That Apply
HOME Submissions | Advertising | Showcase | Library Subscriptions | Media Inquiries | Reviewers | Contact Us |   Email this page to a friend
addall.com - external link
Visit AddAll.com to compare and save at 41 bookstores!
Searching for used books? Search 20,000+ dealers!
 
Compare music prices  |  Compare movie prices
One Percent