The 92nd Street Y is thrilled to host a panel of Tove Jansson enthusiasts—novelists and artists, writers and editors—for a discussion and celebration of the beloved Finnish author.
Tove Jansson (1914–2001) spent much of her life on a barren, wind-swept island in the Gulf of Finland, painting, writing, and constructing a universe that would become one of the most beloved in modern literature.
A writer of crystalline prose and a cartoonist of effortless wit, she is best known for The Summer Book, reissued in English by NYRB Classics in 2008 with an introduction by Kathryn Davis, and for the Moomins — those strange, tender creatures who have, for eight decades, inspired an almost cult-like devotion across Europe and beyond. A new English-language edition of Jansson's Sun City, originally published in 1974, is forthcoming from NYRB Classics this February. Extending a fascination with old age explored first in The Summer Book, Jansson's Sun City is a group portrait of residents and employees at the Berkeley Arms retirement home in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Now, as Tove Jansson becomes the subject of a film starring Glenn Close, and as The Moomins and the Great Flood marks its 80th anniversary, 92nd Street Y convenes Alexander Chee, Leanne Shapton, Rivka Galchen, and Kate Zambreno—along with moderator Makenna Goodman—for a conversation about the restless imagination that fueled Jansson’s life and art.
Tickets required:
In-person — $30
Online — $25