A Woman for All Seasons: Astrid Lindgren at 100 November 14, 2007

"A Woman for All Seasons" honors the work and legacy of the late Swedish children's book author Astrid Lindgren. The program is divided into two parts. The first half of the day will feature scholarly discussions of Lindgren's literary corpus; participants include Eva-Maria Metcalf (Assistant Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Mississippi and former adjunct faculty at GSD), Ulla Lundqvist (Lindgren scholar), Karen Coates (Associate Professor, Illinois State University), and Ulf Boethius (Stockholm University). The program's second half will focus on artistic and pedagogical perspectives on Lindgren's work, addressing how others have approached her books through illustrations, stage productions, translations, and teaching. This portion of the conference features contributions by Lena Norrman (Swedish lecturer, U of M), Karen Nelson Hoyle (Curator and Professor, U of M Libraries), Elissa Adams and Jessie Shelton (Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis), Tiina Nunnally (author and translator), and Susan Marie Swanson (local children's author).

Professor Poul Houe from the Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch states, "Arguably the most world famous among 20th century Swedes (next to filmmaker Ingmar Bergman), Astrid Lindgren, who died in 2002, penned some forty children's books, inspired countless picture books, plays, songbooks, feature films, radio and TV series, and was the recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Prize (the 'Nobel' for writers of children's books). Like her most reputed character, Pippi Longstocking, this iconic author has for decades been 'an international favorite' whose major works have sold in 100 million copies and been translated into seventy-five languages...the author of the Pippi Longstocking books (1945-48), Mio, My Mio (1954), The Brothers Lionheart (1973), Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (1981), and a host of other Lindgren classics, is a story of unusual complexity for the realm of children's literature."

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, University Libraries, Children's Literature Research Collections, Friends of the Libraries, Kerlan Friends, Institute for Advanced Study, Center for German and European Studies, American Scandinavian Foundation, American Swedish Institute, Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, and Penguin Young Readers Group.

Official Website: http://special.lib.umn.edu/clrc/new_clrc/whatsnew.php