Though not raised in a reservation, she often visited relatives there. 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. Both parents taught at a boarding school in Wahpeton, North Dakota, set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She was the oldest of seven children born to Ralph Erdrich, a German-American, and Rita (née Gourneau), a Chippewa woman (of half Ojibwe and half French blood). Personal life Įrdrich was born on June 7, 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota. She is also the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis that focuses on Native American literature and the Native community in the Twin Cities. She was married to author Michael Dorris and the two collaborated on a number of works. In 2021, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel The Night Watchman. She was awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction at the National Book Festival in September 2015. She is a 2013 recipient of the Alex Awards. In November 2012, she received the National Book Award for Fiction for her novel The Round House. In 2009, her novel The Plague of Doves was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. She has written 28 books in all, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children's books. Įrdrich is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of the Native American Renaissance.

She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people. Karen Louise Erdrich ( / ˈ ɜːr d r ɪ k/ ER-drik born June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings.

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