Novelist to speak about potatoes – ‘the surprise of the world’

    PRESQUE ISLE – A novelist and professional screenwriter will talk about potatoes and how they have impacted the Irish immigration to the ‘new world’ when he serves as the next speaker in the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Distinguished Lecturer Series.
    Peter Behrens will speak on “Potatoes, the Surprise of the World: Experience and Imagination in the Wake of the Irish Potato Famine” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 28, in the Campus Center.
    Behrens received Canada’s oldest and most prestigious book prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, in 2006 for his first novel, “The Law of Dreams,” which traverses the bleak period of the Irish Potato Famine and follows the main character Fergus through Ireland, Britain and across the Atlantic to ‘the Boston states.’
    “Potatoes,” it says early on in the book, “are not made or cut, like the famer’s hay or corn; they are lifted, joyfully, the surprise of the world.”
    The Washington Post has said that Behrens has a “richly empathetic imagination that reminds us once again of how powerful historical fiction can be in skilled hands . . . an unobtrusively elegant stylist.”
    Behrens will read excerpts from his book and discuss the loss of Ireland’s beloved crop and how it shaped the Irish psyche, imagination and experience. Despite the inherent grimness of his subject, Behrens plans to bring a measure of both wit and gravity to his presentation.
    Behrens, who was born in Montreal, has published a collection of short stories, “Night Driving,” and written four feature screenplays. He has held a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and has been a Writing Fellow of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass. Behrens lives in Brooklin, with his wife, Basha Burwell, and their son, Henry.
    The University’s Distinguished Lecture Series was established in 1999. Each year, the UDLS Committee sponsors five to six speakers who come from Maine and other states representing a range of disciplines and viewpoints. While the emphasis tends to be on featuring visiting academics it is not exclusively so. The speakers typically spend two days at the University meeting with classes and presenting a community lecture.
    For more information about this event, contact Lynn Eldershaw at 768-9749 or lynn.eldershaw@umpi.edu.