NOVELIST AND POET LOUISE ERDRICH IS AWARDED THE 33RD ANNUAL DOROTHY AND LILLIAN GISH PRIZE
ESTABLISHED BY ACTRESS LILLIAN GISH AS A BEQUEST TO HER PEERS, PRIZE IS AMONG THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS FOR INDIVIDUAL U.S. ARTISTS
New York, NY, September 25, 2026 — The Gish Prize Trust today announced that the 33rd annual Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize has been awarded to novelist and poet Louise Erdrich, author of works including Love Medicine (National Book Critics Circle Award, 1984), The Round House (National Book Award, 2012), LaRose (National Book Critics Circle Award, 2016), and The Night Watchman (Pulitzer Prize, 2021) and owner of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Established in 1994 through the will of legendary screen and stage actress Lillian Gish, known as the “First Lady of Cinema,” the Prize is among the most prestigious honors given to individual artists in the United States.
Each year, a selection committee awards the Gish Prize to an exceptionally accomplished artist whose work has expanded the boundaries of their discipline, achieved the highest level of excellence, and served as an enduring source of inspiration to future generations. In the words of Lillian Gish, the Prize honors an individual “who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.”
“It is hard to express my joy at being awarded this prize, and it is humbling to be counted among those who have received this honor. In making her bequest, Lillian Gish wrote about beauty, a word not often used now in talking about artistic achievement. We speak instead about novelty, innovation, iconoclasm. But in many ways, I am always trying to find a pathway into ‘the beauty of the world,’ which includes grief and everything else that is difficult to praise,” Louise Erdrich said. “I work with my sisters and daughters to make books and put them into peoples’ hands. We and the hard-working staff all support Birchbark Books in an effort to celebrate and distribute Indigenous books to schools, prisons, local clinics, and readers everywhere. So, I am moved that Lillian chose to include her sister in titling this award, and that she speaks of all who work in the name of art.”
The selection committee for the 2026 Gish Prize chose to honor Louise Erdrich out of a field of more than sixty distinguished nominees from a broad spectrum of disciplines, including visual and performing arts, literature, film, music, and new media. She joins a list of acclaimed recipients who have ranged from Frank Gehry, Bob Dylan, Isabel Allende, and Bill T. Jones during the Prize’s earlier years to more recent honorees including Rosalba Rolón, Vicky Holt Takamine, Thelma Golden, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Sonia Sanchez, Ava DuVernay, Gustavo Dudamel, and Suzan-Lori Parks.
This year’s Prize selection committee was chaired by Rio Sakairi, Artistic Director at The Jazz Gallery; Lincoln Jones, Founder and Artistic Director of American Contemporary Ballet; Anne-Imelda Radice, Art Historian, Museum Director, Arts Administrator; Sara Reisman, curator, educator, and writer; and Tamara Warren, journalist, author, and CEO and founder of Le Car.
Speaking on behalf of the selection committee, Sara Reisman said, “This year’s selection committee is thrilled to award the Gish Prize to Louise Erdrich, whose significant literary output has largely focused on the Ojibwe people of the northern Midwest. As someone born and raised in Minneapolis, I am personally proud to recognize Erdrich, as her writing has had an indelible effect on my understanding of Indigenous life, in a place where its history was largely obscured. Adjacent to her writing practice is Birchbark Books, a community-based teaching bookstore with international presence that amplifies the work of Native and non-Native writers, with the distinct mission to be other, which denotes a form of beauty that celebrates that which makes each of us different.”
The Gish Prize will be officially awarded to Louise Erdrich this fall.
J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. is trustee of the Gish Prize Trust.