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Linda LeGarde Grover

リンダ・ルガード・グローバー

Linda LeGarde Grover

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
Duluth, Minnesota, United States
Nationality
Bois Forte Band (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe), United States
Languages
English, Ojibwemowin
Residence History
Duluth, Minnesota, USA → University of Minnesota Duluth (residence/work)

Career

Occupations
novelist, poet, essayist, university professor (emeritus), columnist
Affiliations
University of Minnesota Duluth, Department of American Indian Studies
Influenced By
Louise Erdrich, Gerald Vizenor, Jim Northrup, David Treuer

Awards

Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction
Work: The Dance Boots
Organization: Flannery O'Connor Award organization
Result: Winner
Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize
2011
Work: The Dance Boots
Organization: University of Rochester (awarding body)
Result: Winner
Red Mountain Press Editor's Award
Work: The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives
Organization: Red Mountain Press
Result: Winner
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award (Poetry)
2017
Work: The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives
Category: Poetry
Organization: Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards
Result: Winner
Native Writers' Circle of the Americas First Book Award
2008
Work: The Road Back to Sweetgrass (manuscript)
Organization: Native Writers' Circle of the Americas
Result: Winner
Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Fiction Award
2015
Work: The Road Back to Sweetgrass
Category: Fiction
Organization: Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers
Result: Winner
Minnesota Book Award (Memoir & Creative Nonfiction)
2018
Work: Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year
Category: Memoir & Creative Nonfiction
Organization: Minnesota Book Awards
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year

2017 Essays / Memoir

A collection of essays exploring the seasons and life of the Ojibwe—intersections of tradition and contemporary life, seasonal practices, and personal and communal memory.

seasons and subsistencecultural memoryIndigenous identity

The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives

2016 Poetry

A poetry collection expressing Ojibwe life, memory, and landscape; tribal experiences and personal narratives are interwoven.

memorylandscapetribal life

The Road Back to Sweetgrass

2014 Novel (Fiction)

A novel set on an imaginary Ojibwe reservation that interweaves seasonal practices, contemporary tribal life, humor, and sharp social observation.

community and belongingseasonal ritualcolonialism and cultural continuity

The Dance Boots

Short story collection (Fiction)

Debut short story collection containing stories about family, culture, and tribal life. Won multiple literary awards upon publication.

familymemorytribal society

Gichigami Hearts: Stories & Histories From Misaabekong

Stories & histories

A work collecting local histories and stories, combining tribal memory with personal perspectives.

local historynarrativitycultural preservation

Bibliography

  • The Dance Boots
  • The Road Back to Sweetgrass
  • The Sky Watched: Poems of Ojibwe Lives
  • Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojibwe Year
  • Gichigami Hearts: Stories & Histories From Misaabekong
  • In the Night of Memory

Style & Themes

Literary Style
interweaving English narration with Ojibwe wordsseasonal cycles and regional focuslyrical and observational prose
Recurring Motifs
seasonal practicestribal tradition and everyday lifememory and intergenerational ties

Legacy

Linda LeGarde Grover is a leading contemporary Ojibwe writer whose seasonal and region-centered works articulate Indigenous life and memory. Through academic work and newspaper columns she has influenced both scholarship and her local community.

Trivia

  • Enrolled member of the Bois Forte Band (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe).
  • Professor emeritus in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
  • Has written a column for the Duluth News Tribune.
  • Awards include the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize (2011), Wordcraft Circle Fiction Award (2015), and Minnesota Book Award (2018).