The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich Image: Harper/Aspen Words
In a virtual ceremony tonight, Louise Erdrich was named the winner of this year s Aspen Words Literary Prize, for her novel
The Night Watchman. The $35,000 prize goes to a work that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.
The novel, set in the early 1950s, follows a man named Thomas Wazhashk, named for the muskrat, wazhashk, the lowly, hardworking, water loving rodent. Thomas works as a night watchman at a North Dakota factory, but he s also a Chippewa tribal elder at a time when the federal government is trying to break its treaties with Native American tribes and end their rights to their traditional lands a process known as termination.