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New York — NEW YORK (AP) — Louise Erdrich’s latest honor has given her a new appreciation for how the solitary art of writing depends on the help of others.
Erdrich is receiving the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award this year. It is named for the late sisters – silent film actresses Dorothy and Lillian Gish – who asked him to establish an award for “making a special contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s happiness and understanding of life.”
Since the award’s inception in 1994, winners have included Bob Dylan, Frank Gehry, Merce Cunningham and Ava DuVernay.
Erdrich, 72, is already a Pulitzer winner for her 2020 novel “The Night Watchman” and a National Book Award winner for her 2012 novel “The Round House.” In 2015, she received the Library of Congress Award for American Fiction. In a recent telephone interview with The Associated Press, Erdrich said that after learning about the Gish award, she researched the lives of the two actors and was impressed by how they made everyone involved in the film feel appreciated.
“They talked to the stage hands and anyone else who was around, the people who helped put a product together. That’s very close to my heart,” said Erdrich, citing her experience as a bookstore owner. “I like being part of the overall structure of bringing books to people.”
Like peers like Ann Patchett and Lauren Groff, Erdrich has first-hand experience in the creation and sale of books. In 2001, she helped found Birchbark Books, an independent store based in Minneapolis that promotes “the power of good writing, the beauty of handmade art, the strength of Native American culture, and the importance of small, intimate bookstores.” (Erdrich, whose books are often based on Native American life, is a registered member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.)
In a statement released Friday, Gish selection committee member Sara Reisman praised Erdrich’s writing for its “indelible impact on my understanding of Native life.”
“Next to her writing practice is Birchbark Books,” said Reisman, “a community-based textbook store with an international presence that expands the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers (and) celebrates what makes us different.”
