Heid E. Erdrich selected as Minneapolis' first poet laureate

Heid E. Erdrich has been named Minneapolis' first poet laureate. Now, she has three weeks to write one of the most important poems of her life, to be read aloud when she's honored at a City Council meeting on Jan. 8.

No pressure.

"I'm going to look back at poems I've written about Minneapolis and try to pull ideas together," said Erdrich, a two-time Minnesota Book Award winner, after the announcement Tuesday. "I think a poem is a basket. I can weave it for purpose and I enjoy doing that. I'm very civic-minded and happy to think about how this will address the newness of the year."

As poet laureate, Erdrich will speak at council meetings, teach three classes and generally spread poetry love.

Fellow writer, and family member, Louise Erdrich lauded Heid as a "brilliant choice" to be the city's premiere voice in verse.

"Heid is a joyous, cerebral, funny, generous phenomenon as a poet. She is a Twin City treasure — a devoted teacher with broad sympathies and an example of artistic excellence," wrote the Pulitzer Prize winner in an email. "She also happens to be a family gem, my particular hero and the most loving sister imaginable."

The position was announced in September but Heid Erdrich — who is Ojibwe, enrolled at the Turtle Mountain Band — procrastinated about applying until she was in New York City for the National Book Awards (she was the 2023 poetry chair) and realized the Nov. 15 application deadline was imminent.

She learned she had been selected from 24 nominees last Friday, in a call from the Loft Literary Center, which made the announcement this week along with the city's Arts and Cultural Affairs Department.

"I was very excited and immediately forgot everything they told me, except for the fact that I was going to do this thing. Then, of course, imposter syndrome took over, over the weekend and then, Monday, I was like, 'I'm going to get to work,'" said Erdrich, whose most recent book of poems is "Little Big Bully" and was a Star Tribune artist of the year in 2019.

Mayor Jacob Frey said of the position, which includes an honorarium of $8,000 and a $2,000 project grant, "Our new poet laureate will help inspire our community through the power of words."

That's one thing on Erdrich's list.

"It appealed to my sense of responsibility and love of the city of Minneapolis and wanting to do something positive — and really find out more about the city and help parts of the city learn more about one another. I feel like that sounds lofty for what you can do in a year, but I can listen," said Erdrich, who often gets inspiration from the music of Patti Smith, David Bowie or the Asiginaak Singers, with whom she performs. "A lot has happened to our city in the past three or four years and I think we've spent a lot of time separating but I hope we can come together."

She grew up listening to her father, Ralph L. Erdrich, share poems about the prairie by Vachel Lindsay, Carl Sandburg and Emily Dickinson. She's excited to do some sharing herself and hopes that by the end of the year she'll have created a short poem video — or what her niece Pallas calls a "poemeo."

Part of her job will be to remind people that poetry is everywhere.

"Songs. Prayers. The person in a community who responds to difficulties with language that moves people. People who use words in their visual art," said Erdrich. "Poetry was likely song at first, before it was written down."