The Red Book of Farewells: Mia Spangenberg in conversation with Trisha Low
@ Pilsen Community Books
Online
Opening Tuesday, April 25th, from 7PM - 8PM
The Red Book of Farewells: Mia Spangenberg in conversation with Trisha Low *VIRTUAL EVENT*Tuesday Apr 25 2023 7:00pm – 8:00pm
We’re excited to host a *virtual event* with Mia Spangenberg and Trisha Low in celebration of Mia’s translation of Pirkko Saisio’s The Red Book of Farewells.
This virtual event will be streamed on the Pilsen Community Books YouTube channel here.
https://youtube.com/live/0a6vrqzjaoI?feature=share
Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional novel, in Mia Spangenberg’s tender translation from Finnish, is a mesmerizing account of radical politics and sexual awakening in a series of farewells—to her mother, to the idealism of youth, to friends and lovers, and finally to her grown daughter. The novel embeds readers in a delirious Finland, where art and communist politics are hopelessly intertwined, and where queer love, still a crime, thrives in underground bars. Playful and mysterious, The Red Book of Farewells stoically embraces the revolutionary potential of moving on.
Pirkko Saisio (b. 1949) studied drama and completed her actor’s training in 1975. Her debut novel The Course of Life (Elämänmeno, 1975) won the J. H. Erkko Award. Saisio has been nominated for the Finlandia Prize seven times, winning it in with The Red Book of Farewells (Punainen erokirja, 2003). She has, among other awards, received Aleksis Kivi Prize and State Literature Award. Apart from novels, she has written numerous plays and scripts for film and television and is a well-known theatre director.
Mia Spangenberg translates from Finnish, Swedish, and German into English. Her work has been published in Finland and the UK, and appeared in journals such as LitHub and Asymptote. She holds a Ph.D. in Scandinavian studies from the University of Washington, Seattle, where she resides with her family.
Trisha Low is the author of The Compleat Purge (Kenning Editions 2013) and Socialist Realism (Emily Books / Coffee House Press, 2019). She is the recent recipient of a 2023 Creative Capital Award. She lives in the East Bay of California.
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Tags: Chicago, Lower West Side, Mia Spangenberg, Pilsen Community Books, The Red Book of Farewells: Mia Spangenberg in conversation with Trisha Low, Trisha Low
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