[13] Neither Wolf nor Dog was also chosen as the common reads book for Winona State University freshmen in 2007, where it engendered controversy for its combining of traditional storytelling and oral history techniques under the designation of non-fiction.
[14] His subsequent work, The Wolf at Twilight, was used as the common reads book for incoming freshmen at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.
Nerburn’s friendship with the singer Robert Plant resulted in Neither Wolf nor Dog being picked up for European publication by prestigious UK publisher, Canongate.
Neither Wolf nor Dog was also adapted into a highly successful independent film of the same name, starring 97 year old Lakota elder, Dave Bald Eagle, in the last performance of his career.
His work, Letters to My Son (re-released in 2013),[16] was quoted by British Prime Minister David Cameron during his father’s day address to the nation in 2011.
Daniel Pink called it “a powerful and deeply moving meditation on what it means to live the life of the artist.” Twitter founder Jack Dorsey distributed it to his primary cultural influencers and it has been cited by producer, Rick Rubin and author Margaret Atwood.
They have one son (Nicholas Kent Nerburn), and they helped raise Mengelkoch's other three children (Stephanie, Alexandra and Creighton Penn).
[6] “What the Land Knows: Kent Nerburn’s Books Bridge the Spirits of Two Peoples.”[42] Kaszuba, Mike., "Northsider seeks a way to keep the presses rolling," Minneapolis Star and Tribune, Oct. 1, 1995, 3B.