{"id":33010,"date":"2017-04-13T09:50:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T13:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=33010"},"modified":"2017-04-20T11:32:08","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T15:32:08","slug":"author-emmi-itaranta-speak-novel-memory-water-emus-common-read-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/author-emmi-itaranta-speak-novel-memory-water-emus-common-read-selection\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Emmi It\u00e4ranta to speak about her novel ‘Memory of Water,’ EMU’s Common Read"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emmi It\u00e4ranta, author of Memory of Water <\/em>(Teos, 2012), will visit campus on Wednesday, April 19. The book is Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s 2016-17 Common Read<\/a>. It\u00e4ranta will speak at 4 p.m. in Martin Chapel.<\/p>\n

The award-winning speculative fiction, which students and faculty were encouraged to read throughout this academic year, imagines a future with diminishing freshwater and its effect on society and a family of \u201ctea masters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book is an important read for anyone who is concerned about access to basic resources, like clean water,\u201d says Professor Kirsten Beachy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I even started writing ‘Memory of Water,’ I was very interested in Japanese tea culture and its connection with Zen Buddhism,\u201d said It\u00e4ranta in a March 2016 episode of Speculate!, a literary podcast. \u201cI was also at the same time following news about climate change and its impact on freshwater resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u00e4ranta’s work stands out among novels written for young adult audiences,\u201d says Beachy. \u201cIt takes place in a futuristic world, yet the way that it centers around the practice of the tea ceremony gives it cultural resonance, a sense of weight and history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speculate! described the book, which It\u00e4ranta wrote simultaneously in Finnish and English, as \u201cenvironmentally conscious speculative fiction, the kind of thing people call eco-punk or bio-punk.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u00e4ranta was raised in Tampere, Finland, and now resides in Canterbury, U.K. She has traveled globally promoting Memory of Water<\/em> and her second book, The Weaver <\/em>(Harper Voyager), <\/em>which was released in the U.S. last November. In April 2016, a polar bear cub born at the Brno Zoo in the Czech Republic was named Noria, after the main character in Memory of Water. <\/em><\/p>\n

The next Common Read text will be Between the World and Me<\/em> (Spiegel & Grau, 2015) by Ta-Nehisi Coates, followed by the StoryCorps collection Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work<\/em> (Penguin Press, 2016).<\/p>\n

Episode 157 of Speculate!–Emmi Itaranta Author Discussion<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n