Concordia College

Author to Visit

Nov 17, 2008


FOR MORE INFORMATION:
CONNIE JONES, librarian
(218) 299-3238
AMY KELLY, Media Relations director
(218) 299-3642

AUTHOR TO VISIT CONCORDIA

    Author Eric Dregni will speak to students on the Concordia College campus at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 20 on the Library Mezzanine. His presentation to the entire campus community at 9:30 a.m., Friday, Nov. 21, also on the Mezzanine, will be followed by a book signing. Dregni wrote his latest book, “In Cod We Trust: Living the Norwegian Dream,” after receiving the 2004 Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing and living for a year in Norway. 
    Dregni grew up in Norway’s colony in America: Minnesota. His great-grandfather fled Norway in 1893 when it was the poorest country in Europe and more than 100 years later, his great-grandson traveled back to find that—mostly due to oil and natural gas discoveries—it is now the richest.
    In this cross-cultural memoir, Dregni tells the hair-raising, hilarious, and sometimes poignant stories of his family’s yearlong Norwegian experiment. Among the exploits he details are staying warm in a remote grass-roofed hytte (hut), surviving a dinner of rakfisk (fermented fish) thanks to 80-proof aquavit, and gnawing on klippefisk (dried cod) while cats follow them through the streets. Dregni’s Scandinavian roots do little to prepare him and his family for the year in the land of the midnight sun which is far stranger than they previously thought, and their encounters show that there is much we can learn from its unique and surprising culture.
    Dregni teaches creative writing at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., and Italian at Hamline University and the University of Minnesota and serves as the dean for Concordia’s Italian Language Village. He is the author of several books, including “Minnesota Marvels” (Minnesota, 2001) and “Midwest Marvels” (Minnesota, 2006). 
    The Cobber Bookstore will have copies of Dregni’s book available for purchase in the library that morning.

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08-201