The McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis has named writer Marcie Rendon as its 2020 McKnight Distinguished Artist.

Now in its twenty-fourth year, the annual $50,000 award recognizes a Minnesota artist who has made significant contributions to the state's cultural life. An enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, Rendon is a writer whose poems, plays, children's books, and novels explore the resilience and brilliance of Native peoples. She is the first Native American woman and the second conse