Born in Little Falls, Minnesota, Louise Erdrich grew up in the town of Wahpeton, North Dakota, near the Minnesota border and the Turtle Mountain Reservation. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe of North Dakota; her mother is of French-Chippewa descent, and for many years her grandfather was Tribal Chair of the reservation. Her parents were Bureau of Indian Affairs educators; both taught at the boarding school in Wahpeton. Erdrich was educated at Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins; she has taught poetry in prisons and edited a Native American newspaper. In addition to publishing two books of poetry, Jacklight (1984) and Baptism of Fire (1989), she has written a number of novels and short stories. Her novels include Love Medicine (1984), The Bingo Palace (1991), and The Round House (2012).