American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Compiled by Lillian Brewington, Normie Bullard, and R. W. Reising In recent years Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris have teamed to enrich the Native American Renaissance in a way previously unknown in imaginative literature. Working collaboratively, the pair, married since 1981, have agreed that first-draft creation should dictate subsequent claims to authorship. Whichever of the two writes the initial draft of a volume gains credit for that volume. Although multiple drafts have proven as crucial as consistent husband and wife interaction concerning content and style, first-draft primacy has governed the professional relationship, which to date has produced four critically acclaimed volumes. The first three carry Erdrich’s name, the most recent Dorris’s: Iucklight, a book of poetry published in 1984; Love Medicine, a novel appearing in the same year; The Beet Queen, a novel published in 1986; and A YellowRuff in Blue Water, a novel published in 1987. The method of collaboration and authorship-determination is so unusual, the success of the team so rare, and the future of their efforts so promising that critics and teachers are certain to find the following bibliography helpful. Each of the bibliography’s four parts treats an Erdrich-Dorris volume. Included and tersely annotated are reviews and essays from newspapers, journals, and magazines, as well as audio-tapes, which have appeared prior to October 1, 1987.