COOL CLUB
For the duration of Nordic Cool 2013, the Terrace Gallery will become the Cool Club, an extension of the Nordic Design Illustrated exhibition. The Cool Club will feature the iconic Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs, on loan from Fritz Hansen, the Embassy of Denmark in Washington, D.C., and Furniture from Scandinavia, and a new curtain made from fabric by Marimekko.
 
Is the family falling apart? The family has always been the cornerstone of Nordic literature. Whether the bloody feuds of the Icelandic family sagas or the heated marital strife of Strindbergian drama, the internal dynamics of the family stand at the center of the Nordic literary tradition. Do revelations of painful secrets and uncomfortable truths both unsettle familiar relationships and propel the modern individual forward? Is the familiar framework still shoring up the Nordic novel or asking readers to rethink assumptions about the family entity? Marianne Stecher of the University of Washington's Department of Scandinavian Studies speaks to three authors exploring the individual in relation to family today--Hallgrímur Helgason (Iceland) and Anne Swärd (Sweden).

Part of Nordic Cool 2013.
 
Marianne Stecher, USA (Moderator)
Marianne Stecher (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, 1990) is Professor of Danish and Scandinavian literature at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she has been teaching in the Department of Scandinavian Studies since 1991. She has published a study on the documentary novels of Thorkild Hansen, edited two reference works covering Danish writers from the Reformation through the Twentieth Century, and written numerous scholarly articles and reviews. Stecher's most recent book, The Creative Dialectic in Karen Blixen's Essays, is forthcoming with Museum Tusculanum Press at the University of Copenhagen.
 
Hallgrímur Helgason, Iceland
Hallgrímur Helgason is an Icelandic painter, novelist, translator, and columnist. His first novel, Hella, came out in 1990. His best-known works are 101 Reykjavík, which was made into a popular film of the same name; Höfundur Íslands (The Author of Iceland), which won the Icelandic Literary Prize in 2001; and The Hitman's Guide to House Cleaning. He was also nominated for the Icelandic Prize in 2005 for his novel Rokland. He has also been nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize for both 101 Reykjavík and Rokland. Helgason's most recent novel, The Woman at 1000° (2011), was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize.
 
Anne Swärd, Sweden
Anne Swärd is a Swedish novelist. Her works include Polarsommar (Polar Summer), Kvicksand (Quicksand), and Till sista andetaget (Breathless), among others. Polarsommar (2003) was nominated for an August Prize, Kvicksand (2006) was nominated for Vi Magazine's Literature Prize and was awarded the first scholarship from the Mare Kandre Memorial Fund, and Till sista andetaget (2010) won the Bokcirklar Award for the novel of the year.

This is a FREE event. General Admission tickets will be distributed, two (2) per person on a first-come-- first-serve basis, in front of the theater, 30 minutes before the performance begins.

The Nordic Cool 2013 Literature Series is curated by Danish Arts Council, Norwegian Literature Abroad, Swedish Arts Council (Kulturrådet), Finnish Literature Exchange, and Icelandic Literature Foundation.