Borrowed Horses: Louise Erdrich

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Louise Erdrich

I'm so pleased by the class's positive response to Louise Erdrich! I was especially pleased by the things you noticed about this story. For instance, Caitlin mentioned that both the ice that kills the men trapped in the cooler and the rainstorm/tornado all involve danger via water, which seem appropriate for Fleur, with her history of drownings and her relationship with the river demon. It was a clever thing to notice, and I have no doubt Erdrich was thinking along precisely these lines when she was thinking about the form Fleur's retribution might take.

I promised I would upload a few book recommendations and links for those of you interested in learning more about Louise Erdrich.

I've read nearly everything she's written, and I have loved every one of them. My two favorites so far are probably The Master Butchers Singers Club and The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, both of which came out in the last ten years or so. Love Medecine is among her most famous works, and it's also excellent.

Links:
Faces of America Interview with Louis Gates (four parts--each connects you with the next in the series; about 20 minutes total)
2009 Commencement Address at Dartmouth (about 20 minutes)
Democracy Now! Interview talking about her newest novel Plague of Doves (about 9 minutes)
Democracy Now! Interview talking about Leonard Peltier's conviction (less than 5 minutes)

Of these, I highly recommend the Dartmouth Commencement address. It shows her at her most relaxed and humorous of the three. The Faces of America interview with Henry Louise Gates is also excellent.

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Sian Griffiths

Siân Griffiths lives in Ogden, Utah where she serves as assistant professor of English at Weber State University. Her work is published in Quarterly West, Ninth Letter, Cave Wall, River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, Clackamas Literary Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Permafrost, Versal, Court Green, and The Georgia Review, among other publications. Her story “What Is Solid” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and Janet Burroway included her poem, “Fistful,” in the third edition of Imaginative Writing. Siân's debut novel, BORROWED HORSES, is forthcoming from New Rivers Press in October 2013.

Publications

"Dislocated" (essay), MARY, http://maryajournalofnewwriting.wordpress.com/nonfiction/sian-b-griffiths/
"Pearls" (short story), Waccamaw. http://www.waccamawjournal.com/pages.html?x=358
"The Chicago Art Institute: A Guided Tour" (poem), Timber [forthcoming]
"Fistful," "Persistence of Geese," and "Proud Flesh" (poems—anthology reprints), The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol. V: Georgia, Ed. William Wright.Huntsville, TX: Texas Review Press [Forthcoming]
“Fistful” (poem—anthology reprint), Imaginative Writing 3rd ed., Ed. Janet Burroway. New York: Penguin, 2010: 81.
“The Love of Reindeer” (poem), Versal 8 (2010): 6.
“Book Brief” on Dan Albergotti’s The Boatloads (book review), The Georgia Review 63.4 (Winter 2009): 722.
“My daughter, four, confronts an autumn window and all its contradictions” (poem), Literary Mama. http://www.literarymama.com/poetry/archives/2009/07/my-daughter-four.html
“Proud Flesh” (poem), Cave Wall 6 (Summer/Fall 2009): 44-45.
“Bread” (essay), Oregon Literary Review. http://orelitrev.startlogic.com/v4n2/OLR-griffiths.htm
"Two Mermaids” (poem), The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review (Winter 2009): 8.
“Persistence of Geese” (poem), Permafrost (Spring 2008): 42-3.
“Coming Home” (excerpt from Borrowed Horses, a novel), Mangrove Review (Spring 2008).
“What Is Solid.” (short story), Versal 5 (2007): 77. [Pushcart Nominee]
“Fistful” (poem), Ninth Letter 4.2 (Fall/Winter 2007): 45.
“Building Tall” (short story), Clackamas Literary Review 11 (2007):114.
“Dissolving Pearls: Charlotte Brontë’s Textual Hieroglyphs” (scholarly article), Women’s Writing 14 (2007): 49-69.
“Paper Hats” (short story), Quarterly West 62.1 (Spring/Summer 2006): 85.
“Book Brief” on Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost (book review), The Georgia Review 60.1 (Spring 2006): 256-57.
“Somewhere in the Sawtooths. June.” (poem), Court Green 3 (2006): 97.
“Book Brief” on Dennis Covington’s Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream (book review), The Georgia Review 59.3 (Fall 2005): 730-31.
“Why I’m Not Pretty” (memoir), The River Oak Review 2.1 (Fall 2004): 26-33.
“What the Scorpions Know” (personal essay), Riverteeth, a Journal of Nonfiction Narrative 5.2 (Spring 2004): 75-76.