{"product_id":"nordic-accordion","title":"Nordic Accordion","description":"\u003cp\u003eAll of Bart Sutter's grandparents spoke Swedish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his earliest years he heard old people talk Norwegian in farm kitchens and on the streets in town and there were Finns Danes and Icelanders in the neighborhood too. The music of these Nordic languages got inside Sutter's head he also inherited the homesickness of old-timers who spoke about a legendary land they called The Old Country. In \u003cem\u003eNordic Accordion\u003c\/em\u003e Sutter fulfills the covenant he made with his elders long ago-to dramatize critique and honor their struggles their culture their peculiar ways. The book explores the experience of Scandinavian immigrants their ancestors and their descendants.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA few of the stories to be found in Nordic Accordion:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-A Swedish runaway listens to Italian opera while gutting fish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-Two old Norwegians meet at a funeral and romance results.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-Icelanders drop over a cliff to collect seabird eggs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-An American writer speaks to a dead Finnish poet and invites her home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the heart of the book lies a cycle of dramatic monologues by old women about their half-pagan younger years as cowherds in the mountain pasture camps of Sweden. \"This \" says David Ray of Sutter's work \"is poetic storytelling at its best.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBart Sutter\u003c\/strong\u003e received the Minnesota Book Award for poetry with \u003cem\u003eThe Book of Names: New and Selected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e for fiction with\u003cem\u003e My Father's War and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e and for creative non-fiction with \u003cem\u003eCold Comfort: Life at the Top of the Map\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmong other honors he has won a Jerome Foundation Travel \u0026amp; Study Grant (Sweden) a Loft-McKnight Award and the Bassine Citation from the Academy of American Poets. In 2006 he was named the first Poet Laureate of Duluth. He has written for public radio he has had four verse plays produced and he often performs as one half of The Sutter Brothers a poetry-and-music duo. Bart Sutter lives on a hillside overlooking Lake Superior with his wife Dorothea Diver.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Itasca Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54526320902419,"sku":"9781947237049","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0948\/3521\/2563\/files\/img_proxy_63d99c9d-2e9a-4437-ba8b-090c3849936f.jpg?v=1785850774","url":"https:\/\/danuc.net\/products\/nordic-accordion","provider":"Danu's Wardrobe","version":"1.0","type":"link"}