Erdrich to give Dartmouth address

Native American author Louise Erdrich '76 to give Dartmouth's 2009 Commencement address Sunday, June 14Louise Erdrich, a 1976 graduate of Dartmouth who has won acclaim as a writer in multiple genres—most recently she was a finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel The Plague of Doves—will deliver the main address at the College’s 2009 Commencement exercises on Sunday morning, June 14, on the Dartmouth Green. She is one of seven individuals who will receive honorary degrees at the event.

The daughter of a Native American (Ojibwe and French) mother and a German American father, Erdrich is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and came to Dartmouth as a member of the College’s first class to include women. Since then she has built a career as a novelist, poet and author of children’s books, authoring 14 books that have become bestsellers or won awards—including the O. Henry Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Heartland Prize for Fiction. She was twice nominated for a National Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. One of her four daughters, Aza, is a member of the Dartmouth Class of 2011.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Erdrich's Books Are All-American and The Best Indian Books.