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.^[5]

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.^[5] 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.^[5]

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, and the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award.^[5]

Krueger is married and has two children. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.^[1]

Krueger has said his favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. He grew up reading Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James T. Farrell. 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.^[5]

As a mystery genre writer, Krueger credits Tony Hillerman and James Lee Burke as his strongest influences.^[5]

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. 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.^[5][6] 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."^[7] The St. Clair Broiler permanently closed in the fall of 2017.

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; he became intrigued by researching the Ojibwe 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.^[8]

History was a study in futility. Because people never learned. Century after century, they committed the same atrocities against one another or against the earth, and the only thing that changed was the magnitude of the slaughter... Conscience was a devil that plagued the individual. Collectively, a people squashed it as easily as stepping on a daisy.

— William Kent Krueger, Purgatory Ridge

Krueger has read the first Ojibwe historian, William Whipple Warren, Gerald Vizenor and Basil Johnston. He has also read novels by Louise Erdrich and Jim Northrup. Krueger began to meet the Ojibwe people and because of his interest in their culture.^[8]

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."^[9]

Cork O'Connor edit

1. Iron Lake
   • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (1998), ISBN 0-671-01696-2
   • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (1999), ISBN 0-671-01697-0
   • Recorded Books (2010), ISBN 1-4407-5520-5, ISBN 978-1-4407-5520-0
2. Boundary Waters
   • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (1999), ISBN 0-671-01698-9
   • Recorded Books (2010), ISBN 1-4407-5524-8, ISBN 978-1-4407-5524-8
3. Purgatory Ridge
   • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2001), ISBN 0-671-04753-1
   • Recorded Books (2010), ISBN 1-4407-5528-0, ISBN 978-1-4407-5528-6
4. Blood Hollow
   • Atria, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2004), ISBN 0-7434-4586-4
   • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (2005), ISBN 0-7434-4587-2
5. Mercy Falls
   • Atria, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2005), ISBN 0-7434-4588-0
   • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (2006), ISBN 0-7434-4589-9
6. Copper River
   • Atria, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2006), ISBN 0-7432-7840-2
   • Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, paperback (2007), ISBN 1-4165-1446-5
7. Thunder Bay
   • Atria, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2007), ISBN 0-7432-7841-0
   • Atria Books, trade paperback (2009), ISBN 978-1-4391-5782-4
8. Red Knife
   • Atria Books, hardcover (2008), ISBN 978-1-4165-5674-9
   • Atria Books, trade paperback (2009), ISBN 978-1-4165-5675-6
9. Heaven's Keep
   • Atria Books, hardcover (2009), ISBN 978-1-4165-5676-3
   • Atria Books, trade paperback (2010), ISBN 978-1416556770
10. Vermilion Drift
    • Atria Books, hardcover (2010), ISBN 978-1439153840
    • Atria Books, trade paperback (2011), ISBN 978-1439153871
11. Northwest Angle
    • Atria Books, hardcover (2011), ISBN 978-1439153956
    • Atria Books, trade paperback (2012), ISBN 978-1439153963
12. Trickster's Point
    • Atria Books, hardcover (2012), ISBN 978-1451645675
    • Atria Books, trade paperback (2013), ISBN 978-1451645712
13. Tamarack County
    • Atria Books, hardcover (2013), ISBN 978-1451645750
    • Atria Books, trade paperback (2014), ISBN 978-1451645774
14. Windigo Island
    • Atria Books, hardcover (2014), ISBN 978-1476749235
    • Atria Books, trade paperback (2015), ISBN 978-1476749242
15. Manitou Canyon
    • Atria Books, hardcover (2016), ISBN 978-1476749266
    • Atria Books, trade paperback (2017), ISBN 978-1476749273
16. Sulphur Springs
    • Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, Hardcover (2017), ISBN 978-1501147340
    • Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, Trade Paperback (2018), ISBN 978-1501147432
17. Desolation Mountain
    • Atria Books (2018), ISBN 978-1501147463
18. Lightning Strike
    • Atria Books (2021), ISBN 978-1982128685
19. Fox Creek
    • Atria Books (2022), ISBN 978-1982128715

Stand-alone novels edit

• The Devil's Bed
  • Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2003), ISBN 0-7434-6636-5
  • Pocket Star paperback (2003)
• Ordinary Grace
  • Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2013), ISBN 978-1451645828
  • Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, trade paperback (2014), ISBN 978-1451645859
• This Tender Land
  • Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2019), ISBN 978-1476749297
• “The River We Remember”
  • Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, hardcover (2023), ISBN 978-1-9821-7921-2

Anthologies edit

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

• Bush Artist Fellowship, 1988
• Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, 1998 (forIron Lake)
• Minnesota Book Award, 1999 (for Iron Lake)
• Anthony Award 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
• Anthony Award for Best Novel, 2005 (for Blood Hollow)
• Anthony Award for Best Novel, 2006 (for Mercy Falls)
• Minnesota Book Award, 2007 (for Copper River)
• Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, 2007 (for Thunder Bay)
• Dilys Award, 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)

• "Minnesota public radio interview with William Kent Krueger". Retrieved September 5, 2018.
• "On the Trail of William Kent Krueger – resource page". November 7, 2009.
• 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