Louise Erdrich
(1954 -)
American novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, and author of children's books.
Louise Erdrich: Introduction
Louise Erdrich: Principal Works
Louise Erdrich: Prima...
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Erdrich, Louise (1954—)
Of mixed Chippewa and German-American ancestry, Louise Erdrich addresses the concerns of modern Native Americans in a way that appeals equally, if somewhat differently, ...
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Biography EssayThe writings of Louise Erdrich not only reflect her multilayered, complex background but also confound a variety of literary genre and cultural categories. Although she is known primari...
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Once named one of People magazine's most beautiful people, Louise Erdrich (born 1954) is a Native American writer with a wide popular appeal. She is no literary lightweight, however, having drawn comp...
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Like William Faulkner and his Yoknapatawpha County, American writer Louise Erdrich has created her own mythical landscape in and around Argus, a fictional Red River Valley reservation town on the Minn...
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The families Louise Erdrich first introduced in a short story, "The World's Greatest Fishermen" (1982) -- the Kashpaws, the Lamartines, the Pillagers, and the Morrisseys -- have also appeared in four ...
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Louise Erdrich is one of the most important contemporary Native American writers. She writes poetry and some of the most sophisticated fiction and nonfiction being produced in the United States; her n...
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The writings of Louise Erdrich not only reflect her multilayered, complex background but also confound a variety of literary genre and cultural categories. Although she is known primarily as a success...
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In the following excerpt, Stitt examines the mythic patterns explored in Jacklight.
In Jacklight, her first book, Louise Erdrich arrives at an understanding of the modern world by discovering patte...
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In the following essay, Tharp discusses the destruction of Indian women's power and identity through Anglo colonization and demonstrates how Erdrich's explores this phenomenon in her fic...
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In the following review, Thornton offers a positive appraisal of The Bingo Palace but expresses reservations about the novel's elements of magical realism.
One of the dominant motifs in the ...
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In the following essay, Meisenhelder argues that Erdrich addresses problems of race and gender in her portrayals of white women and men of color in The Beet Queen.
To a number of reviewers and crit...
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In the following review, Halpern praises The Blue Jay's Dance for its realistic portrayal of early motherhood.
I recently saw an ad for an instructional CD-ROM on "parenting, prenatal...
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In the following review, Childress praises Erdrich's storytelling and characterization in Tales of Burning Love.
Louise Erdrich is attracted by the miraculous possibilities of love. Romantic...
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In the following review, Klinkenborg praises Tales of Burning Love and conjectures that the book signals a fundamental change in Erdrich's writing.
There has always been something fervent ab...
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In the following essay, Barak discusses Erdrich's use of gender mixing in the Indian tradition of the figures of the berdache and the trickster.
...
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In the following essay, Matchie discusses similarities between Tales of Burning Love and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
In an address on National Public Radio, Amy Tan said she wo...
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In the following review, Banks asserts that The Beet Queen, in its best sections, rivals the novels of Charles Dickens in socially conscious storytelling.
The Beet Queen is a Dickensian story, an a...
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In the following essay, Castillo examines issues of women and power in Erdrich's novels.
Some years ago, when I was casting around for a topic for my Ph.D. thesis, I was struck, as I read so...
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In the following interview, Erdrich discusses her process of writing and storytelling and emphasizes the importance of her heritage in her work.
It was a sunny day in New Hampshire when Louise Erdr...
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In the following essay, Matchie outlines parallels between Love Medicine and Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
Published in 1984, Love Medicine is about a tribe of Indians living in North Dakota....
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In the following excerpt, Finch praises most of Baptism of Desire but expresses reservations about the final section of the book, objecting to the comparative "ordinariness" of the poems...
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In the following essay, Ruppert explains the ways in which Erdrich allows readers of Love Medicine, both Native and non-Native American, to experience the Native perspective in the text.
Love Medic...
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In the following essay, Slack contends that Love Medicine's loose structure as a novel is held tightly together by the recurring figure of the Trickster, represented by various characters.
O...
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In the following review, Rubenstein praises Erdrich's up-dated edition of Love Medicine.
Louise Erdrich is not the first author to return to a previously published work of fiction to amend i...
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In the following interview, Erdrich discusses her early works and talks about the life experiences that influence her poetry and fiction.
“If there's a story there, that's enou...
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In the following review, Dunn offers a critical overview of the poems contained in Baptism of Desire.
When classifying American Indian literature, literary critics seek to define just what is disti...
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In the following essay, Hafen offers a critical analysis of Erdrich's poetry, focusing on her portrayal of culture and ritual through literature.
As an intensely personal genre, poetry intim...
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In the following essay, Fast compares literary treatments of colonial Indian captivity stories, as represented in selected works of Erdrich and Maurice Kenny.
Many contemporary American Indian writ...
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In the following review, McKenzie asserts that Erdrich's first volume of poetry successfully portrays North Dakota's varied population of “ordinary” people of both Native a...
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In the following review, Shetley offers a brief criticism of Jacklight.
Louise Erdrich's rough-hewn poems view the American West they inhabit under two contrary aspects: as wild, daemonic na...
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In the following review of Jacklight, Waters comments on Erdrich's exploration of her mixed heritage through poetry.
In Jacklight Louise Erdrich has achieved something unusual in the field o...
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In the following review, Loudon offers favorable criticism of Jacklight.
Designating someone's “first book of poems” as such is typically an apologetic strategy. For Erdrich, &...
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In the following review, Jahner offers a critical review of Erdrich's Jacklight.
In an age and culture where the sheer volume of poetry written on a given day must approach that of personal ...
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In the following interview, Erdrich discusses the development of her career and her collaboration with husband Michael Dorris.
When Louise Erdrich was a child in North Dakota, her father encouraged...
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In the following interview, Erdrich discusses geographic, cultural, and family influences on her poetry and fiction.
It was a sunny day in New Hampshire when Louise Erdrich and her younger sister, ...
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In the following review, Jaskoski discusses Erdrich's second volume of poetry.
In Catholic doctrine, Baptism of Desire has a rather technical meaning: a person who is unable to manage conven...
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