Elizabeth Birkelund — A Northern Light in Provence - with Mary Kay Zuravleff

Ilse Erlund is a translator who lives in a house on stilts along the west coast of Greenland. Isolated and restless in her world by the sea, she convinces her publisher to pay for a trip to the country she has never visited but whose language she speaks fluently: France. Her mission is to translate the verses of Geoffrey "Po" Labaye, a charismatic poet known as "the last living troubadour of Provence."

Upon arrival in the medieval hilltop village of Belle Rivière, Ilse falls under the spell of the Provençal way of life, captivated by the air, the sun, the vibrant spring colors, and the dulcet sounds of the dialect. Soon enough, Ilse is captivated by the poet, too, and she and Po develop a daily rhythm and warm camaraderie--which is disrupted by the arrival of the poet's son, Frey. Though he has a fiancée back in Paris, Frey turns his attentions to Ilse, and suddenly she is forced to learn another language, one her translation skills have not prepared her to decode. Where--and with whom--does her future lie?

With an eye and ear attuned to the sensibilities of French life, Elizabeth Birkelund has created a love story about a woman forced to choose between the security of her quiet northern home and the possibility of the life of her dreams.

Elizabeth Birkelund is the author of two previous novels, The Runaway Wife and The Dressmaker. She started her career in the editorial department of European Travel and Life magazine, then turned to freelance writing as a monthly personal finance columnist for Cosmopolitan. She has written for numerous national publications, including Glamour, Self, Working Woman, and Victoria. You may follow her work and travels on Instagram and Facebook.

Birkelund will be in conversation with Mary Kay Zuravleff, the award-winning author of American Ending, Man Alive, and The Bowl is Already Broken. She is the recipient of the American Academy of Art's Rosenthal Award, the James Jones First Novel Award, and multiple Artist Fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts. She has taught writing at American University, the Chautauqua Institution, Johns Hopkins and George Mason Universities, and she has written and edited extensively for the Smithsonian. Her essays and short stories have appeared in such venues as American Short Fiction, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books, This Is What America Looks Like, and Why I Like This Story. She grew up in Oklahoma and has made Washington, DC, her home.