"I am always anxious to write, testy if I'm not allowed the chance. So why, I wonder, have I set up my life so that I have always faced a cascade of obstacles and distractions that I must overcome before I can climb the stairs to my attic office and sink into my writing chair? I supposed that having children might strike some as the ultimate distraction, but I never looked at our relationship that way, perhaps because my mother, Rita, always did what she needed to do, even with the seven of us swirling around her sewing machine or easel. No, it is not my children, but their animals, the many pets, the creatures they love, that come between me and the page."

Get the Story:
Louise Erdrich: How a Writer's Study Became a Thing With Feathers (The Washington Post 2/15)
Louise Erdrich | The Woman from Turtle Mountain (The Washington Post 2/15)