Louise Erdrich is a Native American author of Chippewa and German American descent. She was born in Minnesota and grew up in North Dakota. She was a member of the first co-ed class to attend Dartmouth University. While a student at Dartmouth, she studied English and met her husband Michael Dorris, who later founded Dartmouth’s Native American Studies program. When she graduated in 1976, she went on to get a degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins. Around this time, she wrote the short story “The World’s Greatest Fisherman,” which later became a chapter in Love Medicine.
Erdrich has written over a dozen novels, including The Round House, Love Medicine, and La Rose. The National...