Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris, the most prominent writers of Native American descent, collaborate on all their works. In these interviews, conducted both separately and jointly, they discuss how their writing moves from conception to completion and how The Beet Queen, Tracks, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, and The Crown of Columbus have been enhanced by both their artistic and their matrimonial union. Being of mixed blood and having lived in both white and Native American worlds, they give an original perspective on American society. Sometimes with humor and always with refreshing candor, their discussions undermine the damaging stereotypes of Native Americans. Some of the interviews focus on their nonfiction book, The Broken Cord, which recounts the struggle to solve their adopted son's health problems from fetal alcohol syndrome. Included are two recent interviews published here for the first time. In this collection, Erdrich and Dorris tell why they have chosen to write about many varying subjects and of why they refuse to be imprisoned in a literary ghetto of writers whose only subjects are Native Americans.

Set in North Dakota, at a time in the early 20th century when Indian tribes were struggling to keep what little remained of their lands, 'Tracks' is a tale of passion and deep unrest.

In their only fully collaborative literary work, Michael Dorris and Louise Erdrich have written a gripping novel of history, suspense, recovery, and new beginnings. The Crown of Columbus chronicles the adventures of a pair of mismatched lovers--Vivian Twostar, a divorced, pregnant anthropologist, and Roger Williams, a consummate academic, epic poet, and bewildered father of Vivian's baby--on their quest for the truth about Christopher Columbus and themselves. When Vivian uncovers what is presumed to be the most diary of Christopher Columbus, she and Roger are drawn into a journey from icy New Hampshire to the idyllic Caribbean in search of "the greatest treasure of Europe." Lured by the wild promise of redeeming the past, they are plunged into a harrowing race against time and death that threatens--and finally changes--their lives. A rollicking tale of adventure, The Crown of Columbus is also contemporary love story and a tender examination of parenthood and passion.

The controversial national bestseller that received unprecedented media attention, sparked the nation's interest in the plight of children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and touched a nerve in all of us. Winner of the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award.

Moving backward in time, Dorris's critically acclaimed debut novel is a lyrical saga of three generations of Native American women beset by hardship and torn by angry secrets.

The first of Louise Erdrich’s polysymphonic novels set in North Dakota – a fictional landscape that, in Erdrich’s hands, has become iconic – Love Medicine is the story of three generations of Ojibwe families. Set against the tumultuous politics of the reservation,the lives of the Kashpaws and the Lamartines are a testament to the endurance of a people and the sorrows of history.

Louise Erdrich, following in the Native American narrative tradition has, crafted enduring tales of homecomings. Her widely acclaimed debut novel Love Medicine garnered prestigious awards, and quickly made its way onto bestseller lists and into readers' hearts. In this full-length critical volume, Stookey uncovers the layers of wisdom and humor embedded in Erdrich's engaging writing. Stookey, analyzing each novel in turn, examines the characters and themes that recur in Erdrich's canon of interconnected stories. This insightful analysis helps students and lovers of fine literature approach Erdrich's work with greater appreciation for her bold narrative style. This study begins with a fascinating biographical account, tracing early influences in Louise Erdrich's life. The subsequent chapter discusses Erdrich's place in literary tradition, as a novelist, a poet, and a storyteller. It also offers lucid analysis of how Erdrich skillfully manages to reconcile traditional and experimental approaches to the construction of her novels. A full chapter then examines each novel in terms of literary style, plot, character development, and theme. Alternate critical approaches to Erdrich's writing are also given for each of her six major works to date. A bibliography and lists of general criticism, biographical sources, and reviews complete this volume, making it an indispensable resource for any reader seeking to develop a greater understanding of Erdrich's writings.

Until recently, collaborative authorship has barely been considered by scholars; when it has, the focus has been on discovering who contributed what and who dominated whom in the relationship and in the writing. In Women Coauthors, Holly Laird reads coauthored texts as the realization of new kinds of relationship. Through close scrutiny of literary collaborations in which women writers have played central roles, Women Coauthors shows how partnerships in writing - between two women or between a woman and a man - provide a paradigm of literary creativity that complicates traditional views of both author and text and makes us revise old habits of thinking about writing. Focusing on the social dynamics of literary production, including the conversations that precede and surround collaborative writing, Women Coauthors treats its coauthored texts as representations as well as acts of collaboration. Holly A. Laird discusses a wide array of partial and full coauthorships to reveal how these texts blur or remap often uncanny boundaries of self, status, race, reason, and culture. that of the Delany sisters and Amy Hill Hearth on Having Our Say; lesbian couples whose lives and writings were intertwined, including Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper (Michael Field) and Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas; and the Native American wife-and-husband authors Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris. Framed in time by the feminist and abolitionist movements of the mid-nineteenth century and the ongoing social struggles surrounding gender, race, and sexuality in the late twentieth century, the partnerships and texts observed in Women Coauthors explore collaboration as a path toward equity, both socioliterary and erotic. For the authors here who collaborate most fully with each other, two are much better than one.

Leading scholars critically explore three leading novels by Louise Erdrich, one of the most important and popular Native American writers working today.

"A revised and expanded, comprehensive guide to the novels of Native American author Louise Erdrich from Love Medicine to The Painted Drum. Includes chronologies, genealogical charts, complete dictionary of characters, map and geographical details about settings, and a glossary of all the Ojibwe words and phrases used in the novels"--Provided by publisher.