Event Information

Anoka-Ramsey Community College Presents
the Two Rivers Reading Series with author Raki Kopernik
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
12 to 12:50 pm in the Legacy Room

The event is free and open to the public

The Memory House is Raki Kopernik’s work of autobiography and memoir. Author Franciszka Voeltz called the book “Part document, part multi-generational memoir, and one hundred and fifty percent relevant, The Memory House shows us family, war, borders, home, persecution, necessity, longing, belonging, and migration as infinite loops. From the Middle East to the Midwest, from the early 1900s to now, Raki gives us entry into the stories she carries in her marrow – an heirloom she offers up in words to us.” The Memory House was a finalist for the 2020 Minnesota Book Award.

Raki Kopernik is a first generation American, queer, Jewish writer. She is the author of The Things You Left (Unsolicited Press) and The Memory House (The Muriel Press), both Minnesota Book Award finalists. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been shortlisted and nominated for several other awards, including the Pushcart Prize for Fiction and the Pen Faulkner Award in Fiction. She is a fiction editor at MAYDAY Magazine and an adjunct creative writing teacher at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design. You can find her at rakikopernik.com and follow her on Instagram @rakikopernik

The event, which is supported by the college’s English Department, is free and open to the public. Two Rivers Reading Series Faculty Jennifer Willcutt said, “The Memory House is a sparely-written memoir to which many of our students who have come from countries at war can relate. This family story, told in language that is simple yet so poetic and beautiful, shows us how families cherish culture and tradition despite conditions of war and persecution.  I found this memoir a powerful reading experience.” For more information about the event, please visit the Two Rivers Reading Series website at tworiversarcc.wordpress.com/.

The Two Rivers Reading Series recently celebrated 20 years of bringing acclaimed, award-winning authors, poets, and playwrights to Anoka-Ramsey each semester. The series events strive to make learning more comprehensive by combining classwork with real-world experiences as students study the authors’ works in their English courses.

For more information about the English Department at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, visit: AnokaRamsey.edu/academics/departments-faculty/english/