Louise Erdrich

Erdrich was born on June 7, 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota. She was the oldest of seven children born to Ralph Erdrich, a German-American, and Rita (née Gourneau), an Ojibwe woman of French descent.{{Cite web |last=Tribune |first=Sarah T. Williams Star |title=The Three Graces |url=https://www.startribune.com/the-three-graces/15083971/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Star Tribune|date=February 4, 2008 }} Both parents taught at a boarding school in Wahpeton, North Dakota, set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Erdrich's maternal grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, served as tribal chairman for the federally recognized tribe of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians for many years.{{cite news|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/profiles/louise-erdrich/10/ |title=Louise Erdrich|work=Faces of America|publisher=PBS |author=Gates, Henry Louis Jr. |author-link=Henry Louis Gates |year=2010}} Though not raised in a reservation, she often visited relatives there.{{Cite book|title=Conversations with Louise Edrich and Michael Dorris|editor-last=Chavkin |editor-first=Allan |editor-first2=Nancy |editor-last2=Feyl |publisher=University of Mississippi|year=1994|isbn=0-87805-652-1|location=Jackson, Mississippi|pages=155}} She was raised "with all the accepted truths" of Catholicism.

While Erdrich was a child, her father paid her a nickel for every story she wrote. Her sister Heidi became a poet and also lives in Minnesota; she publishes under the name Heid E. Erdrich.{{cite web |website=HeidErdrich.com |url=http://heiderdrich.com/ |title=Heid E. Erdrich}} Their sister Lise Erdrich has written children's books and collections of fiction and essays.{{Cite web |last=Vanguard |first=The Patriotic |date=2021-12-02 |title=2021 Pulitzer prize winner Louise Erdrich |url=https://www.thepatrioticvanguard.com/2021-pulitzer-prize-winner-louise-erdrich |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=The Patriotic Vanguard |language=en}}

Erdrich attended Dartmouth College from 1972 to 1976.{{cite web|publisher=Poetry Foundation|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/louise-erdrich|title=Louise Erdrich|date=August 24, 2021}} She was a part of the first class of women admitted to the college and earned a B.A. in English. During her first year, Erdrich met Michael Dorris, an anthropologist, writer, and then-director of the new Native American Studies program. While attending Dorris' class, she began to look into her own ancestry, which inspired her to draw from it for her literary work, such as poems, short stories, and novels. During that time, she worked as a lifeguard, waitress, researcher for films,{{Cite book|title=Conversations with Louise Edrich and Michael Dorris|editor-last=Chavkin|editor-first=Allan |editor-first2=Nancy |editor-last2=Feyl |publisher=University of Mississippi|year=1994|isbn=0-87805-652-1|location=Jackson, Mississippi|pages=94}} and as an editor for the Boston Indian Council newspaper The Circle.

In 1978, Erdrich enrolled in a Master of Arts program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned the Master of Arts in the Writing Seminars in 1979. Erdrich later published some of the poems and stories she wrote while in the M.A. program. She returned to Dartmouth as a writer-in-residence.

After graduating from Dartmouth, Erdrich remained in contact with Dorris. He attended one of her poetry readings, became impressed with her work, and developed an interest in working with her. Although Erdrich and Dorris were on two different sides of the world, Erdrich in Boston and Dorris in New Zealand for field research, the two began to collaborate on short stories.

The pair's literary partnership led them to a romantic relationship. They married in 1981, and raised three children whom Dorris had adopted as a single parent (Reynold Abel, Madeline, and Sava) and three biological children together (Persia, Pallas, and Aza Marion{{Cite web |title=Erdrich, Louise |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/culture-magazines/erdrich-louise|website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=November 6, 2019}}). Reynold Abel suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and in 1991, at age 23, he was killed when he was hit by a car.{{Cite web|title=Master Butchers Singing Club (Erdrich) - LitLovers|url=https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/630-master-butchers-singing-club-erdrich?showall=1|website=www.litlovers.com|access-date=November 6, 2019|archive-date=September 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925053307/https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/630-master-butchers-singing-club-erdrich?showall=1|url-status=dead}} In 1995, their son Sava accused Dorris of committing child abuse;{{Cite web|title=A Broken Life|url=https://www.salon.com/1997/04/21/dorris/|last=Rawson|first=Josie|date=April 21, 1997|website=Salon|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}} in 1997, after Dorris' death, his adopted daughter Madeline claimed that Dorris had sexually abused her and Erdrich had neglected to stop the abuse.{{Cite web |title=Adopted daughter sues Michael Dorris estate, alleging sex abuse |url=https://apnews.com/1bdfc288e6b418c256058c46a9702ab4|website=AP NEWS |access-date=November 6, 2019}}

Dorris and Erdrich separated in 1995, and would divorce in 1996.{{cite book|last=Carnes|first=Mark C.|title=American National Biography: Supplement 2: Supplement 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZczV8ZxgL4C&pg=PA149|access-date=July 12, 2024|date=May 12, 2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-522202-9|pages=149–}} Dorris, who was accused of sexually abusing two of the biological daughters he had with Erdrich,{{cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Andrea|title=Encyclopedia of Motherhood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pcxqzal4bEYC&pg=PR5|access-date=July 12, 2024|date=April 6, 2010|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4129-6846-1|pages=5–}} died by suicide in 1997. In his will, he omitted Erdrich and his adopted children Sava and Madeline; Madeline accused Dorris of sexually abusing her as well.{{cite book|title=New York Magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_T-gCAAAAMBAJ|access-date=December 8, 2012|date=June 16, 1997|publisher=New York Media, LLC}}

In 2001, at age 47, Erdrich gave birth to a daughter, Azure, whose Native American father Erdrich declines to identify publicly.{{cite magazine |title=A Woman With a Habit |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,104598,00.html |last1=Gray |first1=Paul |date=April 1, 2001 |magazine=Time |access-date=March 5, 2020 |archive-date=September 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925183625/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,104598,00.html |url-status=dead }} She discusses her pregnancy with Azure, and Azure's father, in her 2003 nonfiction book, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country.{{Cite web|title='Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country' by Louise Erdrich|url=http://old.post-gazette.com/books/reviews/20030713erdrich0713fnp5.asp|website=old.post-gazette.com|access-date=March 6, 2020|archive-date=March 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305050230/http://old.post-gazette.com/books/reviews/20030713erdrich0713fnp5.asp|url-status=dead}} She uses the name "Tobasonakwut" to refer to him.{{Cite book |last=Erdrich |first=Louise|title=Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country|publisher=Harper Perennial|year=2014|isbn=978-0-06-230996-9|location=|pages=52, 57}}{{Cite journal|last=Knoeller|first=Christian|date=2012|title=Landscape and Language in Erdrich's "Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country"|journal=Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment|volume=19|issue=4|pages=645–660|doi=10.1093/isle/iss111|issn=1076-0962|jstor=44087160}} He is described as a traditional healer and teacher, who is eighteen years Erdrich's senior and a married man. In a number of publications, Tobasonakwut Kinew, who died in 2012, is referred to as Erdrich's partner and the father of Azure.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SucjDAAAQBAJ&q=tobasonakwut+kinew+louise+erdrich+daughter&pg=PT5|title=A study guide for Louise Erdrich's "The Bingo Palace"|date=2012|publisher=Gale, Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-4103-2049-0|language=en}}

When asked in an interview if writing is a lonely life for her, Erdrich replied, "Strangely, I think it is. I am surrounded by an abundance of family and friends and yet I am alone with the writing. And that is perfect." Erdrich lives in Minneapolis.{{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6055/the-art-of-fiction-no-208-louise-erdrich|title=Louise Erdrich, The Art of Fiction |number= 208|journal=The Paris Review|author=Halliday, Lisa|date=Winter 2010|volume=Winter 2010 }}

In 1979, she wrote "The World's Greatest Fisherman",{{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}} 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." 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, and eventually it became the first chapter of her debut novel, Love Medicine, published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in 1984.

"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."{{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}}

Love Medicine won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award.{{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}} It is the only debut novel ever to receive that honor.{{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=}} Erdrich later turned Love Medicine into a tetralogy that includes The Beet Queen (1986), Tracks (1988), and The Bingo Palace (1994). It has also been featured on the National Advanced Placement Test for Literature.{{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}}

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." They got started with "domestic, romantic stuff" published under the shared pen name of "Milou North" (Michael + Louise + where they live).

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. 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. She followed Love Medicine with The Beet Queen (1986), which continued her technique of using multiple narrators{{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}} 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 technique than with the political struggles of Native peoples.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.

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.{{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|url-access=subscription }} 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 (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. Erdrich heavily revised the book in 2009 and published the revision as The Antelope Woman in 2016.{{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 }}

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 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 finalist for The Plague of Doves{{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}} and a National Book Award finalist for The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.{{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}} 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{{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}} (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.{{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}} Her most recent novel, The Sentence, tells the fictional story of a haunting at Erdrich's Minneapolis bookstore, set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd's murder, and the resulting protests.{{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 }}

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.{{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}} She continued the series with The Game of Silence, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction,{{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}} The Porcupine Year, Chickadee, and Makoons.

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.{{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}} Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country (2003) traces her travels in northern Minnesota and Ontario's lakes following the birth of her youngest daughter.{{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}}

Her heritage from both parents is influential in her life and prominent in her work.{{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}} 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.{{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}} 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.See, e.g., Powell's Books (book review), The Christian Science Monitor, August 2, 2004

{{Main page|Birchbark Books}}

Erdrich's bookstore hosts literary readings and other events. Her new works are read here, and events celebrate the works and careers of other writers as well, particularly local Native writers. Erdrich and her staff consider Birchbark Books to be a "teaching bookstore".{{cite web|url=http://birchbarkbooks.com/OurStory |title=Our Story | Birchbark Books & Native Arts | Minneapolis, MN |publisher=Birchbarkbooks.com |access-date=October 23, 2013}} In addition to books, the store sells Native American art and traditional medicines, and Native American jewelry. Wiigwaas Press, a small nonprofit publisher founded by Erdrich and her sister, is affiliated with the store.

• 1983 Pushcart Prize in Poetry{{cite encyclopedia |title=Erdrich, Louise |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/culture-magazines/erdrich-louise |access-date=June 6, 2019 |date=2005}}
• 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for Love Medicine
• 1984 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction for Love Medicine
• 1984 Virginia McCormick Scully Literary Award for Best Book of 1984 dealing with Indians or Chicanos for Love Medicine
• 1985 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, Love Medicine
• 1987 O. Henry Award for the short story "Fleur" (published in Esquire, August 1986){{cite web |title=Bold Type: O. Henry Award Winners 1919–2000 |url=http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/ohenry/0900/winners1919.html |access-date=October 23, 2013 |publisher=Randomhouse.com}}
• 1999 World Fantasy Award—Novel for The Antelope Wife{{cite web |author=World Fantasy Convention |year=2010 |title=Award Winners and Nominees |url=http://www.worldFantasy.org/awards/awardslist.html/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201074405/http://worldfantasy.org/awards/awardslist.html |archive-date=December 1, 2010 |access-date=February 4, 2011}}
• 2006 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for the children's book "The Game of Silence"[http://www.scottodell.com/pages/ScottO'DellAwardforHistoricalFiction.aspx] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150413065807/http://www.scottodell.com/pages/ScottO%27DellAwardforHistoricalFiction.aspx|date=April 13, 2015}}
• 2009 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Plague of Doves
• 2012 National Book Award for Fiction for The Round House{{cite web |date=October 24, 2012 |title=Louise Erdrich, The Round House – National Book Award Fiction Winner, The National Book Foundation |url=http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2012_f_erdrich.html |access-date=October 23, 2013 |publisher=Nationalbook.org}}{{cite web |date=November 15, 2012 |title=Dartmouth Alumna Louise Erdrich '76 Wins National Book Award | Dartmouth Now |url=http://now.dartmouth.edu/2012/11/dartmouth-alumna-louise-erdrich-76-wins-national-book-award/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819090735/http://now.dartmouth.edu/2012/11/dartmouth-alumna-louise-erdrich-76-wins-national-book-award/ |archive-date=August 19, 2014 |access-date=October 23, 2013 |publisher=Now.dartmouth.edu}}
• 2013 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Chickadee
• 2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award{{cite news |last=Cornwell |first=Lisa |date=August 17, 2014 |title=writer louise erdrich wins ohio peace prize |url=http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_26353256/writer-louise-erdrich-wins-ohio-peace-prize |access-date=August 18, 2014 |work=TwinCities.com |agency=Associated Press}}
• 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for LaRose{{cite web |date=2018 |title=National Book Critics Circle: award winners |url=http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/#2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427180857/http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/#2016 |archive-date=April 27, 2019 |access-date=June 6, 2019 |publisher=National Book Critics Circle}}
• 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Night Watchman{{Cite web |title=The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich (Harper) |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/louise-erdrich |access-date=June 11, 2021 |website=The Pulizer Prizes |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=2021-06-11 |title=Pulitzer Prize: 2021 Winners List |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/business/pulitzer-prize-winners.html |access-date=2021-06-14 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}
• 2023 Prix Femina étranger for The Sentence (its French translation La Sentence){{cite web |date=November 6, 2023 |title=Le prix Femina remis à Neige Sinno pour "Triste tigre", récit d'un inceste |url=https://www.france24.com/fr/info-en-continu/20231106-le-prix-femina-remis-%C3%A0-neige-sinno-pour-triste-tigre}}

• 1975 American Academy of Poets Prize
• 1980 MacDowell Fellowship{{Cite web |title=Louise Erdrich - Artist |url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists/louise-erdrich |website=MacDowell}}
• 1985 Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts{{cite web |title=Louise Erdrich – John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/4232-louise-erdrich |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819150207/http://www.gf.org/fellows/4232-louise-erdrich |archive-date=August 19, 2014 |access-date=October 23, 2013 |publisher=Gf.org}}
• 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas{{cite web |title=Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas |url=http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/awards/lifetime.html |access-date=October 23, 2013 |publisher=Hanksville.org}}
• 2005 Associate Poet Laureate of North Dakota{{cite web |last=Salahub |first=Jill |date=November 9, 2017 |title=Native American Heritage Month: Louise Erdrich |url=https://english.colostate.edu/news/native-american-heritage-month-louise-erdrich/ |access-date=June 6, 2019 |publisher=Colorado State University}}
• 2007 Honorary Doctorate from the University of North Dakota; refused by Erdrich because of her opposition to the university's North Dakota Fighting Sioux mascot{{cite web |date=April 20, 2007 |title=Author Louise Erdrich rejects UND honor over 'Sioux' nickname | Minnesota Public Radio News |url=http://minnesota.publicRadio.org/display/web/2007/04/20/erdrich/ |access-date=October 23, 2013 |publisher=Minnesota.publicradio.org}}
• 2009 Honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Letters) from Dartmouth College{{cite web |date=June 7, 2010 |title=Dartmouth 2009 Honorary Degree Recipient Louise Erdrich '76 (Doctor of Letters) |url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2009/04/23c.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819083343/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2009/04/23c.html |archive-date=August 19, 2014 |access-date=October 23, 2013 |publisher=Dartmouth.edu}}{{cite web |date=June 7, 2010 |title=Native American author Louise Erdrich '76 to give Dartmouth's 2009 Commencement address Sunday, June 14 |url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2009/04/23.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141203005929/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2009/04/23.html |archive-date=December 3, 2014 |access-date=October 23, 2013 |publisher=Dartmouth.edu}}
• 2009 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement{{cite web |title=Kenyon Review for Literary Achievement |url=http://www.kenyonreview.org/programs/kenyon-review-award-for-literary-achievement/ |website=KenyonReview.org}}
• 2013 Rough Rider Award{{cite web |date=2016 |title=Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award |url=https://www.governor.nd.gov/administration/theodore-roosevelt-rough-rider-award |access-date=June 6, 2019 |publisher=Office of Governor, State of North Dakota |archive-date=June 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606131938/https://www.governor.nd.gov/administration/theodore-roosevelt-rough-rider-award |url-status=dead }}
• 2014 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction{{cite web |author=Hillel Italie |date=September 9, 2014 |title=erdrich wins lifetime achievement literary prize |url=http://www.nashobapublishing.com/ci_26496735/erdrich-wins-lifetime-achievement-literary-prize |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911152203/http://www.nashobapublishing.com/ci_26496735/erdrich-wins-lifetime-achievement-literary-prize |archive-date=September 11, 2014 |access-date=September 11, 2014 |work=Nashoba Publishing |agency=Associated Press}}
• 2015 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction
• 2022 Berresford Prize for significant contributions to the advancement and care of artists in society{{Cite news |title=United States Artists awards Louise Erdrich 2022 Berresford Prize |url=https://indiancountrytoday.com/the-press-pool/united-states-artists-awards-louise-erdrich-2022-berresford-prize |access-date=2022-12-29 |work=ICT News |date=November 14, 2022 |language=en}}

{{Main|Louise Erdrich bibliography}}

• List of Indigenous writers of the Americas
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• [http://westernamericanliterature.com/louise-erdrich/ Western American Literature Journal: Louise Erdrich]
• {{cite web |url=http://birchbarkbooks.com/_blog/Birchbark_Blog |title=Louise Erdrich's Birchbark Blog |author=Erdrich, Louise |website=Birchbark Blog |access-date=February 10, 2013 |archive-date=March 22, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090322011146/http://birchbarkbooks.com/_blog/Birchbark_Blog |url-status=dead }}
• {{ISFDB name|4043}}
• {{cite web|url=http://lccn.loc.gov/n83129937|title= Louise Erdrich|website= Library of Congress Authorities }} 35 catalog records
• [https://crosscut.com/2018/03/female-native-authors-your-reading-list-sherman-alexie-allegations-sexual-harassment Female Native Authors For Your Reading List]

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