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Minnesota Monthly profiles author Louise Erdrich
Posted on Aug 31, 2010 at 11:04 a.m. by LeeH
Staging Erdrich
by Michael Tortorello, Minnesota Monthly
September 1, 2010
The pilot begins with Louise Erdrich sitting at the Kenwood Café last summer, practically "in this very spot," she says. She's a regular here: The coffee shop shares a door with her store, Birchbark Books. She recommends the raspberry lemonade, and orders one for herself. Then she sits in front of the window to explain how her 2003 novel, The Master Butchers Singing Club, found its way to the Guthrie Theater, where it will premiere September 11.
Last summer, she says, the New York director Francesca Zambello was in the habit of camping out at the café. "I didn't know who she was," Erdrich says. Nor did Zambello recognize the 56-year-old who is perhaps Minnesota's most celebrated living novelist. Erdrich doesn't strive to be noticed. Today, for instance, she's a study in gray: gray-brown linen shirt, flowing gray-green pants, gray-gray cloth-strap sandals.
photo by Paul Emmel