Erdrich, Louise

Erdrich, Louise ( 1954 –   ),
novelist and poet, born in Minnesota. She was raised in North Dakota, which has remained her fictional terrain. Of German–American and Chippewa descent (a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe), she has dramatized the condition of Native Americans through a combination of naturalistic description of reservation life and an interest in tribal and ancestral pasts, which parallels the techniques of magic realism . Her novels include Love Medicine ( 1984 ), The Beet Queen ( 1986 ), and Tracks ( 1988 ).