>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington D.C.
>> Jo Ann Jenkins: Good
morning everyone and welcome
to the 2015 National Book Festival.
I'm Jo Ann Jenkins, the CEO of AARP.
And AARP is thrilled to be here
for the 15th anniversary
of the festival.
And to sponsor the fiction
pavilion with this amazing cadre
of internationally
known and loved authors.
AARP is a nationwide, social mission
organization, with a membership
of over 38 million people.
And some of you today, have
shown me that you have your card
and you've been to get that
discount at Dunkin' Doughnuts.
[ Laughter ]
But we strive every day to enhance
the quality of life for all people
as they age, by fighting
for and equipping them
to live their best lives.
We hope this afternoon, or
sometime during the day,
you'll stop by our exhibit and get
to know AARP just a
little bit better.
AARP is involved in programs like
AARP Foundation Experience Corps,
which pairs older adult
volunteers with K
through 12 disadvantaged
children who help them read
at grade level or beyond.
Or our Mentor Up program
which brings high school
and college students to work one
on one with adults of all ages
to enhance their comfort level
with smart phones, tablets,
and other electronic devices
that you can read your books on.
We're also working hard in
communities across the country
to improve literacy to get
more people reading books
by great authors, like the ones
you're going to hear today.
But it's my pleasure this morning
to introduce my former colleague.
Someone who's serving in the
job that I served in when I was
at the Library of Congress.
Mr. Robert Newlen, the Library
of Congress' Chief of Staff
who will present Louise
Erdrich with the Library
of Congress prize for
American Fiction.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Robert Newlen: Well,
good morning everyone.
And if Ms. Erdrich will permit
me just a moment of digression.
I would just like to
recognize Jo Ann Jenkins.
As she mentioned, she's former Chief
Operating Officer at the Library.
She served with great distinction.
Now has moved on to greater
heights at AARP and leading
that organization brilliantly.
Jo Ann, thank you for all you have
done at the Library of Congress
and for all that you continue to do.
[ Applause ]
And I would also like to take a
moment to acknowledge Marie Arana,
who you'll be hearing from shortly.
Our interviewer today.
The reason that we're all here
today is because of Marie.
She is the Co-Director of this
entire festival with Guy Lamolinara.
And as most of you know,
Marie is a noted scholar
and writer in her own right.
Marie thank you for
making this possible today.
You are fabulous.
[ Applause ]
And now it is my pleasure, as Chief
of Staff of the Library of Congress,
but I think more importantly,
as a librarian--
which is how I started life,
to award our third Library
of Congress prize for
American Fiction
which honors an American
novelist whose body
of work is distinguished not
only for its mastery of the art,
but for its originality of
thought and imagination.
The prize was inspired by a
prior award the Library made
to Herman Wouk in 2008 for his
lifetime achievement in fiction.
Since then, the prize
has been conferred
on novelists Toni Morrison, Philip
Roth, Isabel Allende, John Grisham,
and under its present name to Don
DeLillo and the late E.L. Doctorow.
The Library of Congress
has selected Louise Erdrich
as the newest recipient
of the Library
of Congress prize for
American Fiction.
Karen Louise Erdrich, born June 7,
1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota,
was the first of seven children.
Raised in North Dakota, by a
German-American father and a mother
who was half-French, half-Ojibwe.
She lives in Minnesota with
her daughters and is the owner
of Birchbark Books, a small,
independent bookstore.
And if you haven't checked it out
yet, they have a fabulous website.
Erdrich is the author of 14 novels
as well as volumes of poetry,
children's books, and a
memoir of early motherhood.
Her debut novel "Love Medicine,"
won the National Book
Critics Circle Award.
Her most recent novel,
"The Round House,"
has garnered resounding praise
and won a national book award.
Her novel before that,
"A Plague of Doves,"
was a finalist for
the Pulitzer Prize.
Last year, she was awarded the
prestigious PEN/Saul Bellow Award
for achievement in American fiction.
Erdrich was nominated for
the Library of Congress prize
for American Fiction by a jury
of 22 distinguished literary
figures from around the world.
This included Nobel Prize
winners, Man Booker Prize winners,
prominent literary critics,
and past winners of this Prize.
In making the final selection,
the Library of Congress stated,
and I quote, Louise Erdrich
has portrayed her fellow Native
Americans as no contemporary
American novelist ever has.
Her prose manages to be at
once lyrical and gritty.
Magical yet unsentimental.
Connecting a dream
world of Ojibwe legend
to stark realities
of the modern day.
Unquote. She is above
all an American original.
A writer whose work
rings with authenticity.
As Philip Roth has written, and I
quote, in an original prose style,
gravely and humorously, she
has depicted unblinkingly
and with the deepest knowledge,
the plight of the people
whose intimate lives she knows
like no one else in writing today.
Please join me in celebrating this
year's Library of Congress Prize
in American Fiction
winner, Louise Erdrich.
[ Applause ]
[ Off mic ]
>> Louise Erdrich: Gorgeous.
[ Applause ]
>> Marie Arana: Thank you
very much, Robert Newlen,
for that wonderful introduction and
for the welcome from Jo Ann Jenkins.
It's so wonderful to see you
out at the top of the day
for this really top of the heap
writer Louise Erdrich who has--
is so deserving of this Prize.
Who has written-- you
know her books.
They are-- and I have
the list of them here.
They're, since 1984, which
is when I think you began,
Louise, with books, at least.
Short stories before that.
A bevy of wonderful books.
Of course, "Love Medicine"
which Robert mentioned.
"Beat Queen," "Bingo
Palace," "The Antelope Wife,"
which she has since rewritten.
We want to talk about that.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: "The Master Butchers
Singing Club" there's so many.
One after another.
And the last two books,
I think there's a third
of a trilogy coming up.
>> Louise Erdrich: Right.
>> Marie Arana: "Plague of
Doves" and "The Round House"
which are just absolutely
winning books Louise.
Congratulations.
And it's so wonderful that you're
being recognized in this way
by this marvelous institution,
the Library of Congress.
How does that make you feel?
[Laughter]
>> Louise Erdrich: I can't
really answer that question.
Let me first start by-- that's okay.
That's okay, my friend.
Alright. I couldn't get
up because I'm stuck
by this cord to this chair.
>> Marie Arana: You're
[simultaneous conversation].
>> Louise Erdrich: I
was warned not to move,
otherwise I would have dashed
forward and-- you know actually.
[ Laughter ]
He said he's from Maine.
We're kindred.
[ Laughter ]
So, yes. I've--
[ Laughter ]
I'm really astonished at this.
I still-- and I have to say,
I'm very surprised that--
and moved, that you've
all come to this event.
Because there is so much
going on here and-- thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Marie Arana: I think
you're soul actually shines
in the work that you do.
So--
>> Louise Erdrich:
More so than in public.
>> Marie Arana: Absolutely.
[Laughs] I'm so-- no
absolutely wonderfully.
>> Louise Erdrich: So, that's
why I'm glad you're here, but,
you know, please keep a low bar.
Because it's--
[ Laughter ]
>> Marie Arana: You know, Louise,
you've called yourself
a marginal person.
Your father, as was mentioned
by Robert, was German decent.
Your mother a member of
the Turtle Mountain--
>> Louise Erdrich: Ojibwe.
>> Marie Arana: Ojibwe Tribe.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: And your
grandfather was the tribal chief.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: I believe,
of the Ojibwe.
And your mother was
also part French.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: So, you're part
Native American, German, French.
And many of your characters
are, you know,
and frankly, like me, mixed race.
People who are the products
of great hybridization of--
>> Louise Erdrich: Yes.
>> Marie Arana: This country.
And of the Americas in general.
And, which it has been since the
whites arrived in the 1500's.
So the Ojibwe claim you.
The Germans claim you.
The French.
>> Louise Erdrich:
The Germans claim me,
but if I try to use German,
I'm always corrected.
>> Marie Arana: Okay.
>> Louise Erdrich: There's really
no way to be perfect in German.
[ Laughter ]
>> Marie Arana: No.
>> Louise Erdrich: I found that.
But it-- this is how it is, right.
Everybody is becoming something
of something with something.
And we're increasingly
less one thing and another.
I think that's what is great
about the United States.
I'm not going to say America.
I hear America too much.
You know, this is a hemisphere.
We're not America.
Everybody else is, too.
United States-- but has
that great word in it.
United. And I think of states of
being more than our actual states.
We really are-- I like
the word hybridization
because we're really
mixing our cultures.
We're mixing our blood, our
food, our energy, our languages.
It is mixing in a really
unusual way.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich: And it--
that is what's, I think,
new and truly extraordinary
about us as a country.
>> Marie Arana: But each individual
seems to embrace many cultures.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yes.
>> Marie Arana: And
this is reflected
so much in your characters.
And there are very few writers whose
characters come alive as yours do.
How does that, being so
descendant of so many cultures,
work when you're imagining
a character?
When you're trying to
put together the people
of Turtle Mountain
and the community.
The extraordinary community
that is all strung together.
Because if you know Louise's
work, you know that they all sort
of breathe in one kind
of organic whole.
How do you-- how does that work?
That culture sensibility
that you have.
>> Louise Erdrich:
It is where I'm from.
I mean, literally there's no way,
other than this, that I can write.
So, I'm writing out of the
mixture of cultures I came from.
But I'm also trying to--
I think from the very beginning
because I was fortunate
in having two generations-- three
generations of ancestors to know.
I knew my great grandfather.
I was able to be with him.
And I just talked a little
earlier about being in the presence
of someone who had hunted buffalo.
And then gone into
the reservation era
and sent his son to boarding school.
And, you know, knowing
both sides of my family.
My German side, master
butcher's from Germany.
Really infused my life
with a sense that I lived
in many times, and
through many people.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich:
It was never just me.
>> Marie Arana: Right.
>> Louise Erdrich:
I was always filled
with the stories and the humor.
The loss. Because, of
course, we are all part
of this great loss that occurred.
You know, there is-- when
there's a nativist movement
in the United States, the only
people who can really claim
that are indigenous people, right?
>> Marie Arana: Right.
>> Louise Erdrich: There's
no one who didn't come
over on a boat otherwise.
So, that's how our,
that's how our country is.
And that's who I am.
>> Marie Arana: Your
parents were schoolteachers.
They were schoolteachers
on the reservation?
>> Louise Erdrich: No.
No, they taught for the government.
>> Marie Arana: For the government.
Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yeah.
>> Marie Arana: And so,
their-- infused you, in a way,
with the culture of books.
You, last night, Louise was speaking
to a smaller group of people.
And you mentioned that there were
three books on your shelf at home.
And, could you talk
a little about that?
And your first sort of
exposure to literature
and to books and to the word.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yes.
And I'll go back to explaining
about the school teaching
because it's both public schools
and government Indian
boarding schools where--
>> Marie Arana: Right.
>> Louise Erdrich: My
parents met and taught.
But, I mentioned "Marjorie
Morningstar" by Herman Woulk,
which was out of my reach.
So I had to climb down, get
it, and get educated about.
Wow. Did I not know what
Marjorie was going to be up to?
And that was pretty
extraordinary for me.
The bible which--
>> Marie Arana: How old were you
when you read "Marjorie
Morningstar?"
>> Louise Erdrich:
I was about eight.
And the bible, I read when
I was-- I started at four.
You know, I had these bible stories.
And it made me an Atheist.
[ Laughter ]
Because I believed
the Old Testament.
You know, when you were at that
magical age, and magical thinking,
you think "I see this burning bush.
I see that these things are real.
I think these things happened."
And I remember that I, at one point,
thought nothing is
happening like this to me.
Nobody is-- I hear no
voices out of my own head.
I hear nothing.
Nothing is happening.
Why? And I looked up at
the sky and I said, "Okay."
This is really crazy as a
four old or a five year old.
I was on my way to kindergarten.
You know, thunderbolt
me if you're there.
[ Laughter ]
And I got nothing.
You know. So, I was--
I took it literally.
The Old Testament, literally.
And then there's also "Animal
Farm" that was on the shelf.
But--
>> Marie Arana: So
you moved on from it.
>> Louise Erdrich: We were
surrounded by library books.
>> Marie Arana: Right.
Right.
>> Louise Erdrich: Surrounded.
Yeah.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
Your literary influences though.
You have mentioned, in
the course of your career,
your absolutely wonderful,
and always consistent career I
should add, because I went back
and read "Love Medicine"
just last week.
And the echoes of "Love Medicine" I
can still hear in "The Round House."
It's extraordinary.
There's a connectivity to
her work that's amazing.
But you have said that your
literary influences were,
among them, Flannery O'Connor.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: Which
I can actually connect.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: Which
I can also connect.
Katherine Anne Porter.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: Toni Morrison.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yeah.
>> Marie Arana: Willa Cather.
Jane Austin.
George Eliot.
And William Faulkner.
And these are all tremendously
different types of fiction writers.
With very, very, sort
of, broad differences.
But, it makes sense that they
were your literary influences.
Because I can see their
resonances in your work.
>> Louise Erdrich: Can you
just see William Faulkner
and Jane Austin like--
>> Marie Arana: Right.
>> Louise Erdrich: Having
whiskey or something?
>> Marie Arana: Well, people have
often said you are a descendant.
Sort of a literary
descendant of William Faulkner,
because you place all
your characters in--
of all your novels,
in the one place.
As did he.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
My sentences are much shorter.
>> Marie Arana: They are.
[ Laughter ]
They are. They are.
And so, that's when I say, well
that's the Flannery O'Conner part.
You know. So there's--
>> Louise Erdrich: Oh.
There's Flannery.
That dark, dark.
>> Marie Arana: Yeah.
>> Louise Erdrich:
Blackness in her heart.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich: It's in me, too.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
Me, too.
>> Louise Erdrich: No, I
love-- and she's funny.
You know, it's so dark,
but it's so funny.
>> Marie Arana: Yes.
>> Louise Erdrich: So I--
>> Marie Arana: Very, very funny.
>> Louise Erdrich: And she's
of that, well, she's Catholic.
But she's really, obviously,
from her last book
that was out, knew how to pray.
>> Marie Arana: Yes.
>> Louise Erdrich: So--
>> Marie Arana: Yes.
>> Louise Erdrich: I can
say I may be an agnostic,
but you never stop being a
Catholic, in your thought.
In your rhetoric.
And your imagistic sensibility.
>> Marie Arana: Right.
>> Louise Erdrich: It goes on.
>> Marie Arana: Absolutely.
And then, of course,
there's Garcia Marquez.
You know who we all
know was branded.
And I say branded because I
so disagree with the notion
that magical realism
is a literary device.
Magical realism in Latin American
literature is just something
that lives and breathes.
I mean, magic is part of your life.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yeah.
>> Marie Arana: And it's
true the Catholicism,
and it's true with the indigenous.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yeah.
>> Marie Arana: Sort of beliefs.
So the people have said that you
are-- you do magical realism.
I think this is a disservice
to your work.
>> Louise Erdrich:
Well, when it began,
I think someone just coined it.
And it became this way of
categorizing certain events
that didn't fit into what is
considered realistic experience.
But, that is exactly what
you were talking about.
There are many events that
are inexplicable, strange,
and impossible to explain.
For instance, why-- beginning
with why are we here?
And, what brought us here?
We have all kinds of
magic happening around us.
And when I'm writing something
that may-- I'm not aware of that.
I'm not aware of anything
being magical or not magical.
And in reading indigenous texts,
most recently, there've been texts
on shamans and how
the training goes.
One begins to understand that, as
we live in an industrialized world,
we have simply lost a
lot of the understanding
of the world we truly depend on.
The natural world.
And it is that kind of understanding
at a level we cannot
know unless we were
to thoroughly depend on that world.
If you threw yourself suddenly
out in a completely uninhabited--
just put yourself in a state park.
Very quickly, you have begun
to have what are considered
magical realist experiences
if you were totally
dependent on this earth.
>> Marie Arana: Right.
Right. Right.
And sometimes, of course,
the magic is on our heads.
It's in the wishful thinking.
It's in the Grimm fairy tales
that you've learned as a child.
Or the indigenous, you know, Native
American tales that you've heard.
And sometimes it just
lives in your head.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: And that is where
I think your connection to magic,
magical realism, if it can
be said is there, is there.
But, you're sort of spinning
so many plates in your books.
That's just one tiny
little part of it.
I want to take you back to 1984.
That Orwellian year, when
you first published a book,
and that was "Love
Medicine" of course.
It was 1984.
You--
>> Louise Erdrich: Actually
"Jacklight" the poetry book was--
>> Marie Arana: "Jacklight"
was first.
That's right.
1984--
>> Louise Erdrich: Was first.
And that was both 1984.
And then Persia, my
oldest daughter was born.
>> Marie Arana: But this
is what I'm trying to say.
In 1984, you published
"Love Medicine."
You published "Jacklight."
You had a baby.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: All of these things
that you would talk
about spinning plates.
>> Louise Erdrich: Right.
>> Marie Arana: You were doing all
of this in the course of one year.
>> Louise Erdrich: Well, this
is what, last night I said.
In this award, I'm
going to say it again.
Thank you, birth control.
You know. I-
[ Laughter ]
Truly. There's no--
this is not an accident.
You know, I was able to become
a young woman and hone my art.
And work on my art.
You know, that one year,
everything had led up to it.
I'd been working on "Love
Medicine" since I was 21.
>> Marie Arana: Wow.
>> Louise Erdrich: When
I-- before that probably.
And practicing writing.
And "Jacklight" came
out of those poems.
So I had many, many years of my art
before I decided to have a child.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich: And, as
I looked back and thought
about literary history, I,
obviously, know that Jane Austin,
and Virginia Woolf,
and George Eliot.
You know, the great lights,
didn't have children.
>> Marie Arana: Right.
Right.
>> Louise Erdrich: So, I've been
able to be a mother as well.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Which is a great gift.
Great gift.
>> Louise Erdrich: Got you, Pallas.
My daughter's here.
>> Marie Arana: And there's
the daughter to prove it.
Right here in the front row.
>> Louise Erdrich: This
is 19-- Pallas was 1985.
>> Marie Arana: Right.
Right. So--
>> Louise Erdrich: The beet queen.
>> Marie Arana: Now
to go back to that.
The publishing of the poetry book
that you so readily reminded me of.
You've published three
wonderful collections of poetry.
And besides that first,
there was the "Baptism
of Desire" and "Original Fire."
Why did you leave poetry
behind or have you?
Or, better phrased, how did
the poetry lead you to fiction?
>> Louise Erdrich: When I started
writing poetry, I was writing--
I was trying to write poetry.
You know. I was trying to.
And I thought maybe I
have to leave the earth.
Leave the country.
Well, how do we get to that
place where you're really-- ?
But then I started
writing narrative poems.
And I, no.
I'm on the, you know,
I'm-- this is what I am.
This is where I am.
I'm a story.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich: Story
is where it's for me.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich: And once I
started writing narrative poems,
I thought maybe I will
start writing a story.
And I couldn't sit
still long enough.
I really jumped up and down.
Because, with poetry
you can do that.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich:
Sitting down long enough.
I actually tied myself
into my chair.
[ Laughter ]
So I had to untie these knots
because I wanted to write a story,
but I-- it took a long time
to get the sitting down part.
Now I don't.
Now it's hard to get up.
[ Laughter ]
>> Marie Arana: I want
to talk a little bit,
before we open it up to all of you.
And please note there are two
microphones here and I'm going
to open it up after this question.
So please come prepared
with a question.
And I should tell you that
if you do ask a question
that you will be filmed and you
will go down into the archives
of the Library of Congress forever.
[ Laughter ]
>> Louise Erdrich: Whoa.
>> Marie Arana: I want to
talk about "The Round House."
Which is an extraordinary novel.
It's one of your most
suspenseful novels.
All of your novels are suspenseful,
but it's a hard driving narrative.
It's really quite-- as
was "Plague of Doves."
Both of them I think have-- because
they have to do with, perhaps,
with the courts of justice.
>> Louise Erdrich: Mm-hmm.
>> Marie Arana: And
the system of justice.
And the business of rights.
And the business of
violation of rights.
And in the first pages
of "Round House,"
if you haven't read it,
you must read this book.
It is extraordinary.
Joe's mother, Joe is the
narrator of the book.
And he is all of 13 years old.
His mother, Geraldine, has been
brutally raped by a white man
in a truly savage act of vengeance.
And traumatized, the mother, of
course, withdraws into silence.
Leaving her husband,
who is a tribal judge,
who has appeared before
in your books.
With a kind of roiling helpless,
inexpressible grief, and anger.
And it is her son, actually,
who has to go out and try
to resolve these profound questions.
At least in his head, and maybe,
actually, avenge his mother.
So, justice is a huge
part of "The Round House."
It was a huge part in
"The Plague of Doves."
This is obviously something
that concerns you very much,
and that is expressed
in the most subtle way.
You never come out and say "Damn it.
You know. Things should
be more just."
But, this is exactly what you feel
when you emerge from this book.
Because your characters
do it all for you.
Tell us a little bit about that
sense of purpose with justice,
and with this marvelous character
of the judge, who is the husband
and the father in this book.
>> Louise Erdrich: I wanted
to write about jurisdiction.
Tribal jurisdiction.
And there's no way
anybody's going to read a book
that said tribal jurisdiction.
[ Laughter ]
And so it took about 20 years
because I knew this tremendous
injustice was occurring.
It's very hard, almost impossible
to prosecute a non-native person
who commits a crime of
violence on a reservation.
Because of the jurisdictional
issues.
So, how was I going to do that?
And I thought many times who
my character was going to be.
How could I portray this?
I have to say that
Joe just walked in.
I had been preparing for somebody,
but he just started talking.
And I didn't stop.
I completely let him take over.
I didn't change narrators
as I often do.
Let him do the whole talking.
>> Marie Arana: How did you
get into that 13-year-old head?
>> Louise Erdrich: It
was so easy for me.
[Laughs] I'm 13.
[ Laughter ]
No, I'm so fortunate because
I'm around young people.
And I get to hear, and see, and know
a little bit about how people are.
And I was-- must have been
a 13 year old boy too.
I'm sure. Because--
>> Marie Arana: I think so too.
>> Louise Erdrich: It didn't
seem a stretch at all.
>> Marie Arana: It was the
most compelling, sort of,
characterization, I think that
I have read in a long time.
I want to open it up to you.
So please come forward
with your questions.
I will ask one more
question about-- thank you.
About the business of your parents.
Because I felt that in this
marvelous judge, the father,
and in Geraldine, I was perhaps,
maybe hearing, or did
I imagine this?
Was this my magical thinking?
That these were your
parents in some way or form.
Shape or form.
>> Louise Erdrich: It's magical.
No, I think for writers, we create--
these both were created characters.
They weren't my parents at all.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich: But,
using emotional truth from--
>> Marie Arana: Right.
Right.
>> Louise Erdrich:
Everywhere that you can is part
of what you do as a writer.
And you create people who
seem to live and breathe.
And they do by the end.
>> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm.
>> Louise Erdrich: For me.
And I want them to do so
as well for the reader.
>> Marie Arana: Well, clearly
you had wonderful, sort of,
raw natural life actually.
In your family.
In your-- in the Turtle
Mountain tribe.
In all of your experiences and your
children to be able to draw from.
First question please.
>> Congratulations on your award.
I have enjoyed teaching your novels
and fiction to undergraduates
at Carleton College for many years.
And I have a question about a novel.
I think it's "A Miracle
at Little Rocking Horse,"
about where you create a character.
A woman who impersonates, and
succeeds in functioning as a priest.
What inspired you to do
that and what were some
of the particular difficulties
in rendering that character?
And how successful did
you feel about that?
>> Louise Erdrich: The book
that you're asking about is
"The Last Report on the
Miracles at Little No Horse"
and I wish I hadn't
used such a long title.
Should have been just
"The Last Report."
I had written it with a
priest and it was all wrong.
It was-- didn't take off.
I didn't have that sense
of human connection
with my character that I needed.
And at one point I started
writing it, the priest is a woman,
and I went to my mother,
who is very devout Catholic,
and said "I think I'm going
to make this priest a woman.
What should I do?"
And she said "Go for it."
[ Laughter ]
Never heard her say
go for it before.
She did. So writing it that
way changed everything.
And I loved writing that book.
I was able to pour
myself into that book.
It's one of my favorite books.
>> Marie Arana: Thank
you for that question.
>> Louise Erdrich: Of mine.
[ Laughter ]
>> Marie Arana: Please.
>> Thank you.
Congratulations, Louise, again.
>> Louise Erdrich:
Thank you very much.
>> On this award.
And welcome to D.C. When I visited--
>> Louise Erdrich: This is great.
>> When I visited Birchbark Books,
you recommended the best
ice cream in Minneapolis.
I would like to recommend
Ice Cream Jubilee in D.C.
[ Laughter ]
In the Navy yard.
My question is actually regarding--
so you spoke a little
bit about your influences
in the books that you read.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yeah.
I'm just doing this.
This is not a--
>> It's not a salute.
>> Louise Erdrich:
It's not a salute.
It's not one of those native
portraits thing that they.
It's just the lights.
I can't see your face without
blocking out the light.
>> So you spoke about your
influences and I was wondering
about other contemporary
writers that you read now.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yes.
>> Who else are you
reading, who's writing now,
that you really connect with?
So, maybe next year when you're
on the committee deciding
who will get this award,
who might you recommend?
>> Marie Arana: Right.
>> Louise Erdrich:
I was just in this.
I was just sitting on a couch with
Marilynne Robinson and Jane Smiley.
They are amazing writers, and I
got to sit on the couch with them.
And we were talking and all that.
But, there's two right there.
>> Marie Arana: You'll hear
from them later today .
>> Louise Erdrich: Yes.
Extraordinary and wonderfully.
I love talking to writers,
but I-- anyway.
So, other writers that
I'm reading right now.
Also Marlon James.
Everybody should pick up "A
Brief History of Seven Killings."
Unbelievable life, and grit, and
fabulous language in that book.
>> Marie Arana: He'll be here
at the festival today, as well.
>> Louise Erdrich: Oh, yeah.
I hope everybody turns out.
Marlon's great in so many ways.
The books I'm reading
right now are--
well, I'm reading Joyce Carol Oates.
I have not read enough of her work,
so I'm going through
one after the next.
Annie Proulx, wonderful writer.
I'm reading-- everybody's reading
these, the Elena Ferrante books.
So there's this murmur of ah.
>> Marie Arana: Yeah.
Wonderful.
>> Louise Erdrich: Yeah.
And I am reading this book
by-- I love translations.
We need more in our country.
We need more translations
and this book called
"The Door" by Magda Szabo.
It's a Hungarian translation.
Please find it.
It's the-- not only is it incredible
friendship between two women,
but it is about the best dog
character I've ever read.
Really good dog.
>> Marie Arana: Thank
you for the question.
>>Thank you.
>> Marie Arana: We
have time actually
for perhaps one or
two more questions.
Over here please.
>> Hi Louise.
>> Louise Erdrich: Hi.
>> I read in a recent New
Yorker a short story by you
about a young girl who is taken to
a trading post and strange, magical,
realistic stuff starts to happen.
I don't know if you
remember that one.
But--
>> Louise Erdrich: I do remember it.
>> It's marvelous.
>> Louise Erdrich: Thank you.
>> But it made me wonder, do you
bring a different set of skills
or do you bring a different
sensibility
to the short story as
opposed to a novel?
And when you're working on them, do
you work differently or is it kind
of the same thing in both cases?
>> Louise Erdrich: Different short--
different set of skills
and sensibility
to short stories or novels.
This particular story is wedged--
little bits of it are wedged
through the next book.
As a history, she's an
ancestor of a character
who is current in the next book.
So, although this was--
it became a short story
when I put the pieces together,
it's actually a narrative
that weaves in and out of the book.
So, it was a bit of both.
Usually, a true short story
is like writing a small novel.
I mean, everything
has to go into it.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Louise Erdrich: It's
called "The Flower."
>> Marie Arana: One more question.
Thank you.
>> Great. I actually recently
moved here from Minnesota,
so it's funny that I've come all the
way to Washington D.C. to see you.
But, my mom actually gave me
"The Round House" recently.
And when she gave it to me, she said
"This is like the, you know like,
"To Kill a Mocking
Bird" on the res."
And I was kind of-- once I read it
I was like I guess I kind of feel,
you know, this young narrator.
The judge father is channeling
a little bit because Finch.
But one of the characters I thought
was really interesting was the woman
who was adopted.
She was just white and she was
openly, you know, you [inaudible]
with my racial background
and it's not this.
But I wonder how you navigate
those racial identities.
I mean, cultural appropriation
is now more in the news,
but it's been happening especially
with native cultures forever.
So how you decided to portray
her and navigate, you know,
her having this identity but
also what is not too far?
>> Louise Erdrich: I think
identity is very porous,
and that this particular character
was, you know, there has--
the reason the Indian Child Welfare
Act came out because of this.
Indian-- Native American
children were adopted
at such a horrific rate
out of their homes.
And away from their families.
For such a long time.
But, very rarely is the opposite
heard where a native family,
and I've heard this several
times though in my life.
Has basically rescued a
child who was abandoned.
And that's what happened.
My grandmother rescues and raised
several children before there were
agencies to handle
this sort of thing.
They were raised by native people.
This is-- she's a non-native person.
Culturally she's native.
And she's totally accepted
in the community.
And that's how she is.
She's one of my favorite characters
because she was kind
of a twisted person.
It was great.
I liked her a lot.
>> Marie Arana: Louise Erdrich.
Thank you for the question.
>> Louise Erdrich: Thanks.
>> Marie Arana: Louise
Erdrich, congratulations.
[ Applause ]
Thank you so much for the
wonderful work you've given us.
>> Louise Erdrich: Thank you.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at LOC.gov