Welcome! / Heid E. Erdrich

Heid E. Erdrich writes, teaches, and collaborates with other artists across genres. She is author of four poetry collections, most recently Cell Traffic: New and Selected Poems. A recipient of awards from The Loft Literary Center, the Archibald Bush Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, First People’s Fund, among other honors, Heid won a Minnesota Book Award for National Monuments in 2009. Her newest book Original Local: Indigenous Foods Stories and Recipes from the Upper Midwest is selling like Grandma Gourneau’s Corn Cakes! BUY SIGNED COPIES HERE

BOOK EVENTS UPCOMING IN 2013

Dec. 17th, University Club in St. Paul (7:30 pm at 420 Summit Avenue)

Dec. 18th Black Dog Cafe in St. Paul (7:30 pm 4th & Broadway)

–for further details see Calendar of Events above

RECENTLY: Heid’s new book (Original Local) has had a surprising media karfuffle. She was even on NPR! Her live call-in interview was on Wisconsin Public Radio, and she was pleased to be on a number of other radio stations as well. Earlier in the year Heid’s poem films (see tabs above) made a nice entrance into the world. Mentioned on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR State of the Arts with Marianne Combs) and chosen to be part of ImagiNative film festival in Toronto, as well as Co-Kisser Poetry Film Festival in Minneapolis where we won the JUDGES AWARD and BEST OF THE FEST. The films, based on poems by Heid and created in collaboration with indigenous filmmakers Elizabeth Day, Jonathan Thunder, and R. Vincent Moniz, Jr. were also screened at the first Headwaters Film Festival in Bemidji, Minnesota, at Augsburg College, at the 2013 Native American Literature Symposium and elsewhere.

ON-GOING: Curator of over a dozen contemporary Native American art exhibits, Heid, along with R. Vincent Moniz, Jr. developed a collaborative, multi-disciplinary exhibit and performance called Artifact Traffic produced by Pangea World Theater and presented at Intermedia Arts. She also juried the 10th annual Untitled show for Soo VAC gallery in Minneapolis.

A LITTLE FROM HEID: Most of my life I have been pursuing my education–from St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, through Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and finally designing my own doctoral program. Of course I have learned in other ways, too, including from my husband and kids. My extended family is large and full of writers, artists, educators and medical professionals. My cultural identity is Ojibwe and I am an enrolled member of my tribe. My mother’s family is from the Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota. My father’s family came from Germany to Minnesota. I grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and now live in Minnesota. I am a frequent visiting writer at educational and cultural institutions, which means I get to travel a lot, which I love. In Minnesota, I often work with galleries to present exhibits focused on Native American artists. I direct Wiigwaas Press, an Ojibwe language publisher.