With the start of the fall season, the Library of Congress is bringing international literature to our popular Live! at the Library series. Our first event, a Latino Poets Spotlight event on Sept. 19 in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, is already sold out—but the event will be featured on our event videos page soon. We’re honored to have former United States Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera back at the Library, in conversation with Ruth Behar and Maria Kelson, in a moderated discussion with local poet/editor/literary historian Dan Vera. That event is a collaboration with our colleagues in the Latin America, Caribbean and European Division and their Hispanic Reading Room, as well as a partnership with Letras Latinas.
I’m happy to report that there are still a few tickets left for our other international lit spotlight event: A Celebration of Nordic Writers starting at 5:30pm on Sept. 26. The Nordic Embassies (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and we started planning for this event earlier this year; one writer from each of those nations will be talking in panel conversations about their work:
Beyond the Snow: The Untamed Landscape in Nordic Lit with Josefine Klougart and Hanna Pylväinen
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. in LJ-119
The authors of “The End of Drum-Time” (Pylväinen) and “On Darkness” (Klougart) will move beyond stereotypical assumptions about the Nordic landscape — that it’s forbidding and cold. Library of Congress Program Specialist Anya Creightney will moderate. A book signing will follow, starting at 6:30 p.m. in LJ-113.
How Well Do We Know the Ones We Love (Even Ourselves)? with Hanne Ørstavik, Hildur Knútsdóttir and Moa Herngren
6:45 – 7:45 p.m. in LJ-119
The characters in these novels are keeping secrets, sometimes (quite strangely) from themselves. How have Ørstavik (“Ti Amo”), Herngren (“The Divorce”) and Knútsdóttir (“The Night Guest”) decided when and how to reveal their secrets? A book signing will follow, starting at 7:45 p.m. in LJ-113.
This is a really rare chance to hear from five Nordic writers and I hope you’ll join us! Thanks to these embassies for the excellent collaboration—and we can’t seem to stay away from our friends in the Latin American, Caribbean and European Division (they’re working on this event with us too).