2019 – WRITING,

(1954-) Louise Erdrich attended Dartmouth College from 1972 to 1976 and was part of the first class of women admitted to the college, earning an A.B. in English. Today, she is one of the most celebrated and beloved authors of novels, poetry, and children’s books of what is called the second wave of the Native American Renaissance and holds an important place in contemporary American fiction.

In her award-winning and best-selling literary works, Louise explores her Ojibwe and German heritages. She has received many distinguished honors for her writing. “Love Medicine,” published in 1984, won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984. Her novel, “The Plague of Doves,” was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction in 2009. In 2012, she received the National Book Award for Fiction for “Round House.” In 2015, she was the recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction at the National Book Festival. Today, Louise, who continues writing books and going to the top of best-seller lists, owns the small independent Minneapolis, Minnesota bookstore Birchbark Books, which exists to nurture and build a community based on books.

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