Interview with Siri Hustvedt – author of “The Sorrows of an American”
In collaboration with the American Scandinavian Society and the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York, we cordially invite you to hear the author Siri Hustvedt, as she talks about her latest book, ”The Sorrows of an American”.
Hustvedt will be interviewed by the Norwegian journalist, Signe Prøis.
Siri Hustvedt
Author Siri Hustvedt. Photo: Marion Ettlinger
Hustvedt was born in Northfield, Minnesota. Her father, Lloyd Hustvedt, was a professor of Scandinavian literature, and her mother, Ester Vegan, emigrated from Norway at the age of thirty. She holds a B.A. in history from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University; her thesis on Charles Dickens was entitled Figures of dust: A Reading of Our Mutual Friend.
Hustvedt has mainly made her name as a novelist, but she has also produced a book of poetry, and has had short stories and essays on various subjects published in (among others) The Art of the Essay, 1999, The Best American Short Stories, 1990 and 1991, The Paris Review, Yale Review and Modern Painters.
Like her husband, Paul Auster, Hustvedt employs a use of repetitive themes or symbols throughout her work. Most notably the use of certain types of voyeurism, often linking objects of the dead to characters who are relative strangers to the deceased characters (most notable in various facets in her novels The Blindfold and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl), and the exploration of identity. She has also written essays on art history and theory (see “essay collections”) and painting and painters often appear in her fiction, most notably, perhaps, in her novel, What I Loved.
She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, the writer Paul Auster, and their daughter, singer and actress Sophie Auster.
Her books include: The Blindfold 1992, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl 1996, What I Loved 2003, The Sorrows of an American 2008.
Signe Prøis
Born 1975, Signe Prøis is a Norwegian journalist and writer, living and working in New York. She holds a degree from the University of Oslo, reflecting studies in Sociology, Spanish, Human Rights, as well as Refugee- and Asylum Rights. Her professional experience includes work in a wide spectrum of fields, from the Oslo Psychiatric Hospital for Children, the Oslo Refuge for Abused Women, as well as Amnesty International Norway, for Norwegian Church Aid, for Norway’s House of Artists, for the production company Rubicon TV, to having been editor of the Norwegian lifestyle magazine NO, until her present move to New York in August, this past year. Before deciding to move here, not withstanding probable adventures to come, Signe has long been an extensive traveller, with a special interest in Latin America and The Caribbean. From New York, she reports to the Norwegian daily, Dagsavisen, along with continuing to work on several future cultural and research projects.
Event details
What: Book presentation: Siri Hustvedt – “The Sorrows of an American”
When: Thursday, February 19, 6 pm
Where: The Norwegian Seamen’s Church, 317 East 52nd Street (betw. 1st & 2nd Aves.)
