Louise Erdrich

Louise Erdrich is one of the well known author of the Ojibwe who has written a number of poetry, novels, children's books, etc. Many of her writings feature the Native American settings as well as characters. She is an active member of the Chippewa Indians' Turtle Mountain Band.

The best place to start is the Love Medicine series, the earliest of Louise Erdrich's multi-book series: it opens with Love Medicine (1984) and runs to 8 books across 1984–2005, ending with The Painted Drum (2005). Louise Erdrich's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Louise Erdrich has 181 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1969 and 2026. 131 of them belong to 5 named series — the largest being the Love Medicine series with 8 books — and 50 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Louise Erdrich's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Love Medicine (1984–2005, 8 books) and Birchbark House (1999–2016, 5 books).

This guide splits Louise Erdrich's 181 books into 5 named series and 50 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Love Medicine (8 books, 1984–2005); Birchbark House (5 books, 1999–2016); Literary Conversations (97 books, 1969–2023); Selected Shorts (17 books, 1993–2012); Contemporary Literature and the Life of Faith (4 books, 1994–2002).