William Kent Krueger is an American novelist and

crime writer True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

, best known for his series of novels featuring Cork O'Connor, which are set mainly in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. In 2005 and 2006, he won back-to-back

Anthony Award The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. Among the m ...

s for best novel. In 2014, his stand-alone book '' Ordinary Grace'' won the Edgar Award for Best Novel of 2013. In 2019, '' This Tender Land'' was a on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list for nearly six months.

Biographical details

Krueger has said that he wanted to be a writer from the third grade when his story "The Walking Dictionary" was praised by his teacher and parents. He attended Stanford University, but his academic path was cut short when he came into conflict with the university's administration during student protests of spring 1970. Throughout his early life, he supported himself by logging timber, digging ditches, working in construction, and being published as a freelance journalist; he never stopped writing. He wrote short stories and sketches for many years, but it was not until the age of 40 that he finished the manuscript of his first novel, ''Iron Lake.'' It won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, the Barry Award for Best First Novel, the

Minnesota Book Award The Minnesota Book Awards are presented annually for books created by writers, illustrators or book artists who are Minnesotans. The award, originally established in 1988, is organized by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. History ...

, and the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award. Krueger is married and has two children. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Writing influences

Krueger has said his favorite book is ''

To Kill a Mockingbird ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...

''. He grew up reading

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

, John Steinbeck,

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

, and

James T. Farrell James Thomas Farrell (February 27, 1904 – August 22, 1979) was an American novelist, short-story writer and poet. He is most remembered for the ''Studs Lonigan'' trilogy, which was made into a film in 1960 and a television series in 1979. B ...

. Most influential among these was Hemingway. In an interview for ''Shots'' magazine, Krueger described his admiration for Hemingway's prose:

His prose is clean, his word choice perfect, his cadence precise and powerful. He wastes nothing. In Hemingway, what's not said is often the whole point of a story. I like that idea, leaving the heart off the page so that the words, the prose itself, is the first thing to pierce you. Then the meaning comes.

As a mystery genre writer, Krueger credits

Tony Hillerman Anthony Grove Hillerman (May 27, 1925 – October 26, 2008) was an American author of detective novels and nonfiction works, best known for his mystery novels featuring Navajo Nation Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Several of his work ...

and

James Lee Burke James Lee Burke (born December 5, 1936) is an American author, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won Edgar Awards for ''Black Cherry Blues'' (1990) and ''Cimarron Rose'' (1998), and has also been presented with the Grand Master ...

as his strongest influences.

Writing process

Krueger prefers to write early in the morning. He began writing in his 30s and had to make time for writing early in the morning before going to work at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. Rising at 5:30 am, he would go to the nearby St. Clair Broiler, where he would drink coffee and write longhand in wire-bound notebooks. In return for his loyalty, the restaurant has hosted book launches for him. At one of them, the staff wore T-shirts emblazoned with "A nice place to visit. A great place to die." The St. Clair Broiler permanently closed in the fall of 2017.

Setting for the Cork O'Connor series

When Krueger decided to set the series in northern Minnesota, he realized that a large percentage of the population was of mixed ancestry. In college, he had wanted to become a

cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...

; he became intrigued by researching the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

culture and weaving the information into his books. His books are set in and around Native American reservations. The main character, Cork O'Connor, is part Ojibwe and part Irish. Krueger has read the first Ojibwe historian,

William Whipple Warren William Whipple Warren (May 27, 1825 – June 1, 1853) was a historian, interpreter, and legislator in the Minnesota Territory. The son of Lyman Marcus Warren, an American fur trader and Mary Cadotte, the Ojibwe-Metis daughter of fur trader ...

Gerald Vizenor Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and ...

and

Basil Johnston Basil H. Johnston (13 July 1929 – 8 September 2015) was a Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) and Canadian writer, storyteller, language teacher and scholar. Biography Johnston was born July 13, 1929 on the Parry Island Indian Reserve to Rufus and Mary (n ...

. He has also read novels by

Louise Erdrich Louise Erdrich ( ; born Karen Louise Erdrich, June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian ...

and Jim Northrup. Krueger began to meet the Ojibwe people and because of his interest in their culture. Krueger believes that the sense of place is made resonant by the actions and emotions of the characters within it. He describes it as "a dynamic bond that has the potential to heighten the drama of every scene."

Bibliography

Cork O'Connor

#'' Iron Lake'' #*

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing ...

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

, hardcover (1998), #*Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (1999), #*

Recorded Books Recorded Books is an audiobook imprint of RBMedia, a publishing company with operations in countries globally. Recorded Books was formerly an independent audiobook company before being purchased and re-organized under RBMedia, where it is now an ...

(2010), , #''

Boundary Waters The Boundary Waters, also called the Quetico-Superior Country, is a region of wilderness straddling the Canada–United States border between Ontario and Minnesota, in the area just west of Lake Superior. While "Boundary Waters" is a common name ...

'' #*Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (1999), #*Recorded Books (2010), , #'' Purgatory Ridge'' #*Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2001), #*Recorded Books (2010), , #'' Blood Hollow'' #*Atria, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2004), #*Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (2005), #''

Mercy Falls ''Mercy Falls'' is the third studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Seventh Wonder. It is a concept album that tells the story of a victim of a car crash who, upon awakening from a coma, finds himself in the mysterious town of Mercy Falls ...

'' #*Atria, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2005), #*Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (2006), #'' Copper River'' #*Atria, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2006), #*Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (2007), #''

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...

'' #*Atria, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2007), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2009), #'' Red Knife'' #*Atria Books, hardcover (2008), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2009), #'' Heaven's Keep'' #*Atria Books, hardcover (2009), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2010), #'' Vermilion Drift'' #*Atria Books, hardcover (2010), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2011), #''

Northwest Angle The Northwest Angle, known simply as the Angle by locals, and coextensive with Angle Township, is a pene-exclave of northern Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota. Except for surveying errors, it is the only place in the contiguous United Stat ...

'' #*Atria Books, hardcover (2011), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2012), #'' Trickster's Point'' #*Atria Books, hardcover (2012), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2013), #'' Tamarack County'' #*Atria Books, hardcover (2013), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2014), #'' Windigo Island'' #*Atria Books, hardcover (2014), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2015), #'' Manitou Canyon'' #*Atria Books, hardcover (2016), #*Atria Books, trade paperback (2017), #''

Sulphur Springs Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produces hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage under ...

'' #*Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, Hardcover (2017), #*Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, Trade Paperback (2018), #'' Desolation Mountain'' #*Atria Books (2018), #''

Lightning Strike A lightning strike or lightning bolt is an electric discharge between the atmosphere and the ground. Most originate in a cumulonimbus cloud and terminate on the ground, called cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. A less common type of strike, ground- ...

'' #*Atria Books (2021), #''Fox Creek'' #*Atria Books (2022), ISBN 978-1982128715

Stand-alone novels

* ''The Devil's Bed'' ** Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2003), ** Pocket Star paperback (2003) * '' Ordinary Grace'' ** Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2013), **Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, trade paperback (2014), * '' This Tender Land'' ** Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2019),

Anthologies

*"Hixton" in ''Crimes By Moonlight'', Berkley Publishing (ebook, 2010) *"Bums" in ''USA Noir'', Akashic Books (soft cover, 2013)

Awards

*Bush Artist Fellowship, 1988 *Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, 1998 (for''Iron Lake'') *

, 1999 (for ''Iron Lake'') *

for Best First Novel, 1999 (for ''Iron Lake'') * Barry Award for Best First Novel, 1999 (for ''Iron Lake'') *Friends of American Writers Prize, 1999 *Minnesota Book Award, 2002 (for ''Purgatory Ridge'') *Readers Choice Award, 2003 *

for Best Novel, 2005 (for ''Blood Hollow'') *

for Best Novel, 2006 (for ''

'') *Minnesota Book Award, 2007 (for ''Copper River'') * Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, 2007 (for ''Thunder Bay'') *

Dilys Award The Dilys Award was presented every year from 1992 to 2014 by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. It was given to the mystery title of the year which the member booksellers have most enjoyed selling. The Independent Mystery Bookseller ...

, 2008 (for ''Thunder Bay'') *Minnesota Book Award, 2008 (for ''Thunder Bay'') *Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, 2013 (for ''Ordinary Grace'') * Edgar Award, 2013 (for ''Ordinary Grace'')

References

External links

* * *Interview with William Kent Krueger by Bruce Southworth on the ''Northern Lights Minnesota Author Interview TV Series'' #420 (1999): https://reflections.mndigital.org/catalog/p16022coll38:104#/kaltura_video *Reading by William Kent Krueger from ''Iron Lake'' for the 1999 Minnesota Book Awards program along with other nominees, ''Northern Lights TV Series'' #432 (1999): https://reflections.mndigital.org/catalog/p16022coll38:208#/kaltura_video {{DEFAULTSORT:Krueger, William Kent 1950 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American mystery writers Novelists from Minnesota Anthony Award winners Barry Award winners Dilys Award winners Edgar Award winners People from Torrington, Wyoming 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers