Litquake – Love In All Its Forms: Hanne Ørstavik with Kristin Keane
7:00-8:30 pm PT
Telegraph Hill Books | 1501 Grant Ave | San Francisco, CA
Event admission is free. A $10–15 donation is suggested.
A single mother forgets her son’s birthday. A theology student excavates the past. A woman reminisces on her marriage, as her cancer-stricken husband enters his final months of life. The work of National Book Award finalist and 2019 PEN Translation Prize winner Hanne Ørstavik explores an ever-evolving theme of complex love, and how it can be intertwined with insecurity, fear, and self-discovery. Ørstavik will revisit her English-translated books Ti Amo, The Pastor, and her literary breakthrough Love, plus a sneak peek of her latest novel—not yet published in the United States—Stay With Me. Join the author in conversation with Stanford doctoral fellow Kristin Keane about the recurrent exploration of love throughout Ørstavik’s 30-year literary career.
Litquake, San Francisco’s Literary Festival, is celebrating 25 years! Their 2024 Festival runs from 10/10 – 10/26 with 140+ events taking place all over the Bay Area and featuring 500+ authors and performers. The full schedule is available at litquake.org(opens in a new tab).
Part of Litquake’s Words Around the World
Sponsored by NORLA Norwegian Literature Abroad and Center for the Art of Translation/Two Lines Press
Hanne Ørstavik published the novel Cut in 1994 and embarked on a career that would make her one of the most remarkable and admired authors in Norwegian contemporary literature. Her literary breakthrough came three years later with the publication of Love (Kjærlighet), which in 2006 was voted the 6th best Norwegian book of the last 25 years in a prestigious contest in Dagbladet, and won the 2019 PEN Translation Prize. Since then, the author has written several acclaimed and much discussed novels and received a host of literary prizes.
Kristin Keane writes about time, memory, and the nature of literacy. She is the author of An Encyclopedia of Bending Time and Luminaries, and her essays have, or will appear in, outlets such as The Believer, The Washington Post, Ploughshares, New England Review, Creative Nonfiction, American Educator, Literacy Today, and elsewhere. She is a researcher at Stanford University, where she earned a PhD.