Book and Ballad: Hundred Miles to Nowhere
HUNDRED MILES TO NOWHERE: AN UNLIKELY LOVE STORY (North Star Press, June 2017) explores what happens when a singer-songwriter moves from New York City to rural Minnesota and discovers somewhere, and someone, in the middle of nowhere. To celebrate its release, veteran performer and New Yorker-turned-Minnesotan Elisa Korenne will share fish-out-of-water excerpts from her memoir and perform songs inspired by her new home.
When Elisa Korenne took a month’s break from New York City to be the resident singer-songwriter in New York Mills, Minnesota, she didn’t intend to stay. Then she fell in love with the local outdoorsman/insurance guy, Chris. One cross-country romance later, Elisa gave up subways, theater, and her Brooklyn apartment to become the 1,153rd resident of a rural town ninety miles from the nearest metropolitan area, Fargo. She had to resort to moonshine to stay sane.
The barista knew her weekend plans before she did. The postmaster set up gigs for her behind her back. Chris expected her to eat roadkill for dinner. And you wouldn’t believe the uproar when the Finnish Lutherans in town learned she was Jewish. Despite a gun-toting Millenialist neighbor and the furnace dying at twenty-six below, Elisa marries Chris anyway. Then a tornado threatens to destroy the home she had finally made for myself.
Come experience the musical launch of a memoir described as A Year in Provence for the “Prairie Home Companion” crowd.
20-word Bio
Elisa Korenne is a writer, performer, and songwriter. She writes memoir and mysteries and composes songs about oddballs in history.
Longer Bio
Elisa Korenne is an award-winning performer, songwriter, and writer. She was educated at Yale University and the London School of Economics. Her memoir Hundred Miles to Nowhere will be released by North Star Press in 2017. Her writing has appeared in The Midwest Prairie Review, Lake Region Review, Red Dirt Review, Poetica Magazine, The Talking Stick, Lake Country Journal, Ultimate Christmas, Northwoods Woman, The New York Mills Herald, East Ottertail Focus, KAXE radio’s On the Beat, and numerous blogs. She has been a finalist for the Freddie Award for Writing Excellence (Mystery Writers of America, Florida), the winner of the Prairie Gate Literary Festival’s Writing contest, a finalist for the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor program, and a finalist in Writer’s Advice Flash Prose Contest. She started her career in international development by co-founding the technology nonprofit Geekcorps. When she gave up her dayjob, she never expected music would lead to a move from New York City to rural Minnesota. She is recognized as a pioneering artist in rural Minnesota and has received Minnesota’s largest grant for individual artists. Elisa weaves songs about the human condition from strands of rock, blues, folk, and Americana. In her hands, stories of fascinating and under-sung historical figures become song portraits. Extraordinary experiences become musical snapshots of emotional truths. Elisa has released five albums to critical praise and performed regionally, nationally, and internationally. Her music has been featured on HBO, VH1, MTV, ABC, and PBS. Prairie Public Broadcasting created ten mini-music documentaries based on Elisa’s Ordinarily Unsung songs about unusual people and events in history. Elisa writes and composes in New York Mills, Minnesota, where she lives with her husband and two young sons.
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