(Novelist)

Louise Erdrich is the author of 13 novels as well as volumes of poetry, short stories, children’s books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel “Love Medicine” (1984) won the National Book Critics Circle Award and “The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse” (2001) was a finalist for the National Book Award. Most recently, “The Plague of Doves” (2008) won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Louise lives in Minnesota and is the owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore.

Erdrich is descended from a father of German descent and a mother of the Turtle Mountain Chippewas, a Native American tribe in North Dakota. Her maternal grandfather was a tribal chief and her ancestral homestead (which she is currently restoring) is one of the oldest extant structures on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Erdrich has traced both sides of her family stories back 200 years and cares enormously about her Native American heritage. Her genealogical work is just beginning.