Louise Erdrich Wins Gish Prize, Credits Collective Effort Behind Writing

Louise Erdrich has been named the recipient of this year's Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, an arts award established through the will of the silent-film sisters Dorothy and Lillian Gish. The prize recognizes what their will described as an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life.

The honor has been presented since 1994, and its past recipients include Bob Dylan, Frank Gehry, Merce Cunningham and Ava DuVernay.

Erdrich, 72, brings a substantial literary record to the award. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2020 novel "The Night Watchman" and a National Book Award for her 2012 novel "The Round House." In 2015, she received the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

Reflecting on the recognition, Erdrich said she looked into the lives of the Gish sisters after learning she had won and came away struck by the way they made everyone involved in a film feel valued. She noted that the sisters spoke with stage hands and others who helped assemble a production, an outlook she said resonates with her own experience as a bookstore owner. Erdrich described her enjoyment of being part of the whole structure that brings books to readers.

Erdrich shares with peers such as Ann Patchett and Lauren Groff a working knowledge of both writing and selling books. In 2001, she helped establish Birchbark Books, an independent Minneapolis store that promotes good writing, handmade art, Native culture and the value of small, intimate bookshops. Erdrich, whose work often centers on Native lives, is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

Sara Reisman, a member of the Gish selection committee, said in a statement that Erdrich's writing had left an indelible effect on her understanding of Indigenous life. Reisman also pointed to Birchbark Books as a community-based teaching bookstore with an international presence that amplifies Native and non-Native writers and celebrates what makes each person different.