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Welcome book nerds. It's Thursday, Thursday, Thursday again. And that means one thing. Nothing else on your Thursday, nothing. It means just one thing, which is that you're listening to us. The bookcase with the Kate part of the Kate and Charlie. And you are.
C
I'm the Charlie part. And Kate's right. This is the only thing you need to do on a Thursday. If you listen to us later in the week, well, then you can have other activities going on. But if it' cook anything, don't go anywhere, don't get out of bed, don't get just listen to the bookcase. And if you have to call doordash or something for food, go buy it if you have to eat. All right. Anyway, we have Louise Erdrich with us and I want to tell you a story. When we started this five years ago, I said to Kate, who would be your ideal guest? Who would you most like to have? Well, number one, she said, stephen King.
B
And still turning us down if you're listening.
C
That's right, Stephen King. Get, get off the dime. And secondly, she said, Louise Erdrich, who is a Minnesota writer, has a bookstore in Minneapolis, Kate's hometown, and is just a wonderful, wonderful writer. The night watchman.
B
The sentence I loved. Yes, Love medicine. I just. Her books are legendary. They have opened my mind and perspective to so many new voices and thoughts. She's a craftsman. And not only that, she's a little like Ann Patchett, which is that, you know, she's a writer who loves books. So she opened a bookstore. So she opens and operates one of the more famous independent bookstores in Minneapolis
C
called Birch Bark Books, which features Native American writers. She has a Native American heritage, but
B
also sells all kinds of great literature. In fact, two weeks ago, I attended a talk between Louise and Thierry Jones. Louise loved Kin as much as I did, so it was a great conversation. We sat there on a in a loft space on a snowy night. Daeri was so excited. She's Like, I'm from Georgia, it never snows. And I'm like, we're from Minnesota, we're over it. But still, she really is a literary hub in the Midwest. And I love not just any author who can craft the beautiful books that Louise has, but also make a literary hub of my local city. What a great accomplishment.
C
So we should mention this book.
B
Yes.
C
Which is called Python's Kiss, I think a very strange title. We talked to her about it. It's about being kissed by a snake. Now it's a series of short stories. And I don't know what we can do to make short stories more popular.
B
Buy them. Buy short stories.
C
I love books of short stories. Love them, particularly from writers who are as adept and skilled as Louise Erdrich. And this is a series of short stories that she wrote over a 20 year period leading up to today, many of which were previously published in the New Yorker. And I should put in a plug for the New Yorker, who puts in a piece of fiction every week, short story. And I just love them. So thank you, New Yorker, for doing that. And some of these stories that Louise Erdrich publishes in this book were there, but Python's Kiss is actually not the original name of the short story. It was Nero, which is the dog that is featured in the story.
B
If you are a book lover, here's what I'll say. Here's my theory about short stories.
C
What is your theory about short stories?
B
Does everybody, like, take out our notebooks and start taking notes on things I say?
C
What follows is Kate Gibson's theory of short stories. I'm really interested to hear this.
D
I'm so sorry I started this.
B
Anyway, I think if you're a book lover like me and you know you're going to have three or four hours
D
to read a book, you should have
B
a book of short stories going and a novel going. Because I think short stories are meant to be savored. I think they're like great amuse bouches at formal restaurants. Boy, did I just get snotty. But you want to just sort of experience the stories one at a time. I think one of the bummers about the way my father and I have to read is we have to get through the book to find out if we like it. Are there any clunker stories in there? Are there any where we're like, whoa, whoa, we're not doing this book, so we sort of have to read it straight through. But short stories are meant to be savored, that you read them and you're supposed to put it down and think
D
about it for a while.
B
And these short stories are no exception. So I would recommend if you are a book lover and you like to do book binges. This is not a book binge book. So have this going with something else because it's, it's just. It's a beautiful story that requires thought after each one.
C
Oh, this is going to kill me. This is going to kill me.
E
Okay.
C
I agree with Kate's theory of short stories. Seldom will you hear me do that.
B
I know the ground just got cold because hell just froze over.
C
I feel. I feel very indulgent endorsing your theory of short stories, but I read them wrong. I read three at a time. There's 13 short stories. I think I read them over four sessions or five sessions, and that's a mistake. You should read one and savor it. Second thing I should mention, each one of these stories is illustrated by her daughter, Asa. Asa Erdrich Bardabe, her last name is. And they're very interesting illustrations. Louise Erdrich, obviously, as we mentioned, has a Native American heritage. And so obviously so does her daughter.
B
So does Aza.
C
Yeah. And I think you see that influence in the illustrations that she gives you in each one. I should mention we talk to Aza
B
after we bring her in at the end of the conversation. Because the illustrations, they're not just afterthoughts, they enhance the work. And they really enjoyed working together. And the book is dedicated to Aza. So we, we bring her in at the end after we talk to Louise. But first, our conversation with the amazing, incredibly talented Louise Erdrich.
D
Louise Erdrich, it is such an honor to have you in the bookcase. Your new collection, short stories, Pythons Kiss. My first question, this is so unfair. My first question is a three parter. So one, why did you decide to rename Nero the Python's Kiss? Why did you put it first? And why did Python's Kiss become the namesake for the collection?
E
This was an idea of Jonathan Burnham, my editor, and he said, you know, people are going to go through this wondering why is it, this is it, that is it, this is it, that it was always going to be first. But I resisted changing the name. But I've had people say, I'm glad you changed the name because it makes sense in terms of the whole book that this sort of touch of wisdom or maybe sorrow is what a lot of the stories are about. So that's what I did.
C
Well, when you have a title about being kissed by a snake, when I started the stories, I thought with that title, is she going for shock value? Will the title get noticed that way? Or what was your thinking about going for to pythons kiss?
E
I love snakes, and I probably have been kissed by a dozen. I just garter snakes. I mean, they'll. They're not really kissing you. They're. They're sensing you with all of their senses. They're tasting what's around you. So they're. There's something else going on there. My mother taught me never to be afraid of snakes, and her house was built over a snake den when she was a little girl growing up on Turtle Mountain reservation. And so we would go back there and I have multiple, multiple photographs of Asa playing with snakes. That's so. It didn't seem strange to me, really. And I. That's all I can say, really. I don't understand. I don't understand when people are weird about snakes. I think, don't bring me a big spider. I can't. I can't.
D
I'd love for you to expand on it, on why python's kiss, you think, perfectly encapsulates so many of these stories.
E
Well, it seemed to me that in every one of the stories there was a moment where the narrator or the purse, the, you know, the third person character it was most about, had some sort of experience that was transcendent or formative, or they came away from this
D
experience
E
bearing something with them.
C
Are you talking about sort of a seminal moment in people's lives that. That is sort of encapsulated by that idea of the moment of a python's kiss?
E
Oh, I think so. That's a good way of putting it. It's a moment that will. You'll go back to in your life, and it will be. Encapsulate something profound for you.
D
What does the genre of short story writing, I mean, what do you think an author owes.
B
I mean, you've written it all.
D
You've written nonfiction, short stories, essays, novels. What do you believe a short story owes to its reader? How do you look at the medium?
E
Well, you owe it to be short. You owe your reader to be that it's short when they go on for many, many, many, many, many pages. It's a. It's a novella, which I love novellas too. But it has to be a compact length and it has to give you. I mean, I read this, that you sense you've been in a. You've been. You've read a novel. I mean, you have everything in this story, and it's. It's more like a Novel in some ways, but it's. It's pared down and packed in.
C
Does a short story owe you a resolution? Does it owe you an ending that is satisfying? Or does the story in the reader's mind simply go on at the end of that short story?
E
Well, I think you can have both. And I think that that's. Ideally what happens is that you have a. You have a. It's hard to quantify it, but there's always a moment where I feel, this is it, this is the end. And yet it feels as though that story is bigger than itself. It could go on, and maybe it goes on for the reader. I used to write short stories and I used to put them into novels because I was a sort of a love of storytelling and somebody, some character in the novel was a person in the short story, and then they would tell what happened in this short story. So I had the two conflated, but I. This one has no stories that went on into. To become part of a novel.
C
No, but that's really interesting. I know short story writer has said that to us before, that you took a short story and you built a structure around it that then became a novel.
E
Yes. Or. Or a. Or maybe four or five short stories. That would be more. The thing that I would have more four or five. And then I would see that these were heightened events in a novel, and they were like these densely packed events in the novel. And then the novel could open out around them, but the characters would go on. You know, I didn't want to let go of some characters.
D
And then how do you know, though, when you're thinking enough about it, where you're like, ah, I gotta write a second story. Or, you know what, this one may have to turn into a novel. Like, when does that crossover happen for you?
E
I don't know if it'll happen with this because I've got some other things I want to work on. Yeah, I don't know if it will. It might, but it'll have to take a. A time when I just can't. I can't write anything else. So it's about compulsion for me. It's about obsession. What is your next obsession when you
C
sit down to write? Do you know something is going to be a short story? You have an idea and do you know it's going to be a short story? Or is that organic? And as you write, you think, I could expand this into a novel? Or did you think. No, I thought this was gonna be a short story. And it is a short Story, I don't know.
E
And what happens over time. Some of these are 25 or more years old, and they've been. A paragraph becomes a page, becomes a few pages, and suddenly I have to finish it, and then it's a short story. But it never really happens that something like that actually becomes a book. I have titles that I write a book to, and I don't have a title for a book that, you know, this. Any of these would fit into. So they didn't become books. And I still have these. I work out of. Out of notebooks where I keep ideas and paragraphs and sentences and clippings and all kinds of things. And so I've never had a moment where I'm kind of at a loss for what I'm going to write next, because something is always there. Something's always in there.
D
You have a couple of male narrators. You have, you know, older, sort of, you know, wary mothers.
B
You have young folks.
D
So I'm wondering, how do you go about matching the voice to the story? Like, how do you figure out once you want to write a short. Or does the character come to you first?
E
The voice usually comes first, or the. Or the incident or the event that starts everything off. So I don't usually match a voice. It's usually happening in a very immediate way.
C
You said something a moment ago. I write to a title. I don't think anybody has told us in the five years that they have a title in mind when they write. It usually comes to them while they're doing it. In other words, do you have to always be thinking about, does this work within the. Within the. The world? That this title suggests a title.
E
I. And I have these in. In notebooks, too. I keep lists of. Of. Of favorite titles and one of them. And they're like magnets, and they seem to attract voices and incidents and things that have happened around me or things that I read about and. And slowly this will become so compelling that I'll start making it into a book or know that I will. The only book that I don't think I. That I changed, I changed the Mighty Red from the title was Crystal, because it was only about one of the characters. But the Mighty Red was the title. As soon as I thought of it, I went, that's the title for this book. And that was very late. And that's the only one that's been like that, I think.
C
So. The Night Watchman, for instance.
E
Yes, yes. That was there from the beginning, earlier than the beginning. Yeah.
C
So what did that. How did because I know the book. How did that title suggest what the book would be when you were first starting out?
D
Or was it your grandfather's voice that came first? And then the night watchman.
C
Yeah.
D
Became the overarching for that.
E
Both. Because this was his job and, you know, this was based on a very good man, which is hardest thing to write as a good person, really. It was his job. And he was writing letters. And I have his letters at night around. He'd usually start around 2 in the morning, and he'd write to stay awake. So I had these beautiful letters that he wrote. And they talk a lot about family. They're funny. He had beautiful handwriting. And of course, it was a night watchman is there alone in the darkness, there to protect people. His people. Hmm.
D
To go back to the short stories, do you do the same thing? Like, did wedding dresses come to you? And then you're like, oh, I gotta know why it's plural. And then you're. And then you're writing for that. Like, do you write to a title also in short stories?
E
So that one, I kept writing it over, you know, a couple of years. I would write little bits of it, and then I thought, I have to finish this for this book. And I finished it, and I sent it to Jonathan, and he said, I don't think this really works. I don't think so. And I went back to it, and I wrote it in about a week. For some reason, I couldn't see that it was really about four wedding dresses and the stories of each relationship. And that's what it became.
D
I want to ask specifically about a line on page 83, which is in Domain, and it's quote says, this, then, is my father's work. The library is his mind. He is filling it with an infinite number of books in which he can play hide or be a part of whatever chapter or incident he chooses. Is that why you write?
E
Ooh, what a question. Mm. I have to say.
D
Yes.
E
I have to say thank you for. Thank you for noting that.
D
I saw that. And I'm like, that sounds like her philosophy.
E
Yes, it is.
C
I want to ask a question or two about your Native American heritage. I read you're an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota.
E
Yeah.
C
And that is a federally recognized Ojibwe people. So without that heritage, would Louise Erdrich be Louise Erdrich?
E
Well, I don't know. But isn't it true of every writer that you are who you are? I mean, this is who I've been all my life. So I have my life to call upon. But every writer has their own background, and it's theirs, and that's what they. They're given to write about. I mean, a science fiction writer really doesn't have to write about aliens. But, I mean, think of Octavia Butler, who could write about anything, who could write the Parable of the Sower, who could write the Xenogenesis trilogy, who could write all of these fantastical books because she had a fantastical mind. You know, it's what you have. It's what you have and what you bring to it.
C
I want to mention that, and this is a question that's personal in nature, in the page preceding many of the stories in Python's Kiss. And I want to bring your daughter in, Asa, here. The story is illustrated by Asa. Don't you realize, Louise, as I have come to realize doing this podcast, how difficult or even dangerous it is to work with your daughter, the effrontery of doing that? You're running a big risk.
D
Wild.
E
I know it's so wild, and I'm curious about this dangerous. But I'm seeing that you seem to have made an enormously beautiful body of work from doing just that. And that's. That's what I'm doing here, Louise.
C
I get no respect. I get.
E
No, no, no, no. Of course. Well, you're the dad.
F
Yeah.
D
And you haven't dedicated a book to me like Louise has to Hazel. So let's bring her in. Let's bring her in. And by the way, thank you so much for taking time to talk with us.
F
I love its collection.
E
Thank you for asking me. I love talking to you.
C
So, as I mentioned, we'll bring Asa in after these commercial breaks, but you mentioned something I thought that was really interesting. You spotted something in the short story Domain, I think is the name of the story that really sort of summarizes, as she said, the reason she writes.
G
Yeah.
B
I think it's worth noting just because, you know, I don't know if you know this, but Louise, you know, she's one of the most important writers of our generation, but she's notoriously shy. This is not a woman who likes to be on the COVID of People magazine, but wants to go to the Met Gala and stand on the stairs. So I was really pleased as I was reading that. I felt like I. I hit on a line that really encapsulates why Louise writes, and then she agreed with me, so I could just replay that moment of the show over and over.
C
I'm sure you'll bring up the fact that I agreed with you on your
F
philosophy of short exactly like this is
B
a bang up show for me.
C
Anytime. Anytime somebody agrees with Kate, she likes it because it happens so seldom.
B
So seldomly so the title of this show could be Louise Erdrich and Kate's not an Idiot. All right, so just because I want draw attention to readers of Louise Ordre, I want, I want to draw attention to this quote. It's on page 83 of a story called Domain. What books he didn't know he could imagine in convincing detail. This then is my father's work. The library is his mind. He is filling it with an infinite number of books in which he can play hide or be part of whatever chapter or incident he chooses. And she said yes.
D
That's why I write.
B
And I just was really, I thought that was a coup. So I'm going to point out my own couple. The sigh of the insufferable daughter. With that, we're gonna cut to commercial break and when we come back, we'll have more Louise and Hazel. So good, so good, so good.
G
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D
How did I not know Rack has Adidas? Why do we rack for the hottest deals?
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H
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C
So, Aza, first of all, how would you describe taking your mom's words and trying to translate that into visual?
F
Well, first of all, I'm an enormous fan of her words and her work, her books, her stories, her as a person across the board. And I did end up making a piece for every single story. So in certain cases, I read the story, some scene just spoke to me, and I wanted to put it into a visual format. And then sometimes she would say, this is what I think this is about. Like in the Hollow Children, she said, I've got it. It's about Agnet. You know, and then sometimes I would read it, and then I'd call her up and we would just talk about it, and it would come to us together organically. It was a really great process for us to connect.
E
It was. Yes. Sometimes I didn't know what was going to happen.
F
Right. It was. Sometimes it was my idea, sometimes her idea, sometimes we came up with it together.
C
I'd love to have been part of one of those conversations when you had a conversation about, okay, mom, what's this story about? Did she ever say, I don't know.
E
Yeah, exactly.
F
Or sometimes I would say, mom, I think I know what this story's about, because we're. I'm not, you know, coming to her. I mean, I do have utmost respect for you, but I also get to come to you as your daughter, and I know you value my opinion and your.
E
In your opinion.
F
So your process. It was. Sometimes I said, what do you want? And sometimes I say, I know what I want, I know what it is, and this is what it should be. And trust me. And she did. And actually. And every time there was something that was not quite right, you would just tell me and we would talk about it. And I think that was great for us, too, honestly.
B
Yeah.
E
Yeah.
D
If you're doing wedding dresses, right. And there's four wedding dresses, that denotes somewhat of a. Okay, here's the illustration I can make. But in a story like the Stone, which is a much more fluid story and symbolic story, and that's a very atmospheric illustration. So I would think that would have been a tougher one to tackle. How did you tackle the Stone? Which, by the way, is one of my favorite stories also.
F
I love that story. I loved it. And it was actually the. I think that was one of the first ones I did when we were pitching. The idea was like, I Read it. And I just saw the lifespan of the stone. You know, from the volcano to where we leave it off when she dies, that stone keeps living on this. Is this the woman's. The human's life is just a blip in the life of the stone. But I just thought I wanted to illustrate scenes from the stone's life. And you describe them so beautifully.
C
Asa, how would you describe the style that you work in? I was asking your mom about whether she would be the kind of writer she is were it not for her Native American heritage. You have the same heritage. And as I look at some of your drawings, I think it's a very particular style. I think these could be woodcuts, for instance, in some instances. Yes, in sort of in bas relief. So I'm curious as to how you describe your style, and how do you think it melds with your mother's prosecution?
F
Oh, well, thank you so much for that question. In this case, with. With the. The work I did in the interior of this book, I'm very much inspired by graphic novels. I love graphic novels, and I love woodcuts. There's actually.
E
Oh, there's a.
F
A book of woodcuts that I wish I could remember the title to, that I was inspired by visuals. Going with words really helped me to propel myself in a story or in a book like this. Jonathan Burnham put it really well when he. We finished the book, and he said, somehow they're all wildly varying in style, but fit together much like the stories that she wrote.
C
So Katie should ask this question, I think, not me. But I said to your mom, don't you realize how dangerous it is to work with a daughter? And we've been doing this podcast now for five years, and I've come to realize how dangerous it is to work with your daughter. So how dangerous is it to work with your mom?
D
This is the world's smallest violin, and I. And it's playing just for him because his life is so hard, so dangerous.
F
Well, it's. You know, it was funny. I. I've listened to a few episodes of your podcast in preparation, and I was like, oh, this is going to be so sweet. You know, father, daughter, mother, daughter, we'll get together. But. And it is. It really wonder. It's wonderful to have a kind of a family affair. But no, I. I can only say good things about the process of being her daughter and being her cover artist, designer, and working together on this book. And, you know, it is the family business. Books are the family business, and I love to read books and she loves to write them. And now we got to. I got to draw in one. It's just a beautiful family business, I
B
guess we should say.
D
Thank you.
F
Thank you so much. It was wonderful to talk to you both. Thank you.
B
Okay, so I love this because with this show, I can cross another item off my bucket list. I got Tamise Louise Erdrich.
C
You did?
E
It's all about me.
B
So. So I just, I was. Again, this is a big literary crush for me just because her books have influenced me. I mean, if you haven't read the Roundhouse, which is a beautiful book all about trauma and mystery, and it gives you a front seat into the Anishinaabe experience that you might. Anyway, just read her writing. You will be a better and bigger person because of it. And Python's Kiss is a wonderful book of short stories. So again, we'd like to make a plug for the short story as an art form. It gets a short. It gets a short shrift and it shouldn't.
C
We also asked her, as we do every week, our featured writer for Coda just to the end the podcast. And Louise Erdrick gave us one and then called us up and said, you know, I really hate the coda that I gave you. It was terrible. I hadn't really thought it through. So we included something that's a little unusual, one more of the questions that Kate asked her. Because Kate does feel that this is all about me. It's all about her. Yes.
B
So we asked her some rapid fire questions, but frankly, we thought the conversation with Louise and Aza was more interesting than the rapid fire. But we did ask her for the best piece of advice she'd ever received on writing. And her coda is the response to that. And writers pay attention because it's a good piece of advice if you're stuck on something, something. So a reminder of the folks that make the podcast possible and then a great piece of writing advice from the amazing Louise Erdrich.
C
The Bookcase with Kate and Charlie is a joint production of Good Morning America and ABC Audio. It is edited by Tom Butler of TKO Productions and our executive producer is Simone Swink. We want to make special mention of Amanda McMaster, Sabrina Kulberg and Ariel Chester of ABC Good Morning America and Josh Cohan of ABC Audio. You can follow us and rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like to find any of the books mentioned on this podcast, you can find them listed in the episode description.
E
When you're worried about an ending, you just don't seem to be able to end the story or the book or something cut back. So you cut into the last few pages because the in there is the sentence that should end your book. You just overwrote.
A
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This episode of The Book Case features acclaimed author Louise Erdrich discussing her newest collection of short stories, "Python’s Kiss." Charlie and Kate achieve a long-held dream of hosting Erdrich, diving deep into her creative process, the essence of short stories, her Native American heritage, and the unique collaboration with her daughter, Asa, who illustrated the book. The episode explores the transformative "seminal moments" at the heart of Erdrich’s writing and the art of savoring short fiction.
[02:50–05:46]
[06:08–09:03]
[09:20–10:13]
[11:27–13:09]
[14:53–16:17]
[14:13–14:53]
[19:10–20:24]
On the essence of short stories:
"Short stories are meant to be savored... I think they're like great amuse bouches at formal restaurants."
— Kate Gibson [04:07]
On transformative moments:
"There's a moment that...encapsulates something profound for you."
— Louise Erdrich [09:03]
On why she writes:
"This then is my father's work. The library is his mind. He is filling it with an infinite number of books in which he can play hide or be part of whatever chapter or incident he chooses...Yes, it is [why I write]."
— Louise Erdrich [18:28, 19:04]
On collaborating with her daughter:
"They're not just afterthoughts, they enhance the work. And they really enjoyed working together. And the book is dedicated to Asa."
— Kate Gibson [05:46]
On the family business:
"Books are the family business, and I love to read books and she loves to write them. And now we got to—I got to draw in one. It's just a beautiful family business."
— Asa Erdrich [29:47]
[25:00–27:35]
[27:35–28:41]
[28:41–29:47]
[31:59–32:21]
This episode is a must-listen for fans of Louise Erdrich, appreciators of short fiction, aspiring writers, and anyone interested in indigenous voices in contemporary literature. The conversation delves deep into the complexities and joys of writing, the significance of moments that shape us, and the beauty of creating art within a family. The show closes with a piece of genuinely practical writing advice that underscores Erdrich's humility and craft.
Further Reading/Listening:
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