McKnight Names Writer Marcie Rendon 2020 Distinguished Artist

The McKnight Foundation has announced the selection of Marcie Rendon for its 2020 Distinguished Artist Award-a $50,000 award created to honor a Minnesota artist who has made significant contributions to the state's cultural life. Rendon, an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, is a writer whose poems, plays, children's books, and novels explore the resilience and brilliance of Native peoples.

"Marcie brings a strong and necessary voice to so many genres," said Pamela Wheelock, McKnight's interim president. "She has created a tremendous body of work, including poetry, plays, lyrics, and award-winning crime novels, all while raising up other Native voices in our community. Her commitment to making art in community embodies what a distinguished artist means to Minnesota and to McKnight."

Rendon is the first Native American woman to receive the Distinguished Artist Award, first given in 1996.

A gifted storyteller and prolific writer, Rendon is the author of the award-winning Cash Blackbear mystery series, set in Minnesota's Red River Valley. The first novel in the series, Murder on the Red River, earned the 2018 Pinckley Prize for Debut Novel, and the second, Girl Gone Missing, was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America-G. P. Putnam's Son's Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Rendon, who is at work on her third novel in the series, is also the author of four nonfiction children's books, including Powwow Summer (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2013).