Anderson, Lauri
October 27, 1942 -
Place of Birth: Foxcroft, ME
Place of Principle Residence: Hancock, MI
Biography:
Lauri Arvid Anderson was born to Ruby Littlefield of “Old New England” and Arvid Anderson (a Finnish immigrant) in 1942 in Maine. He attended the University of Maine and achieved his BA in English in 1965 and his MA in International Education in 1969 from Michigan State University. From 1965 to 1967 Anderson volunteered for the Peace Corps in Nigeria and then served as an English teacher at North County High School in Vermont between 1967 and 1969. In 1971 Anderson completed a MA in English at the University of Pacific and taught at Mizpah Mission School as the chair of English and Dean until 1972. He then moved to Izmir, Turkey to work at the American Collegiate Institute as the chair of English until 1976. From there Anderson went to Hancock, Main where he still serves as the chair of English and the Division Head of Humanities. In addition her served as and English instructor for the Phillips-Andover Academy, a school for gifted minority students, from 1995 to 1997. Anderson has authored five prose works and one book of poetry, many of which exemplify a sarcastic tone, and Anderson’s Finnish heritage. He is the brother of poet Wendy Anderson and author Stuart Anderson and has three children, Eric, Charlotte, and Lucy.
Selected Works:
- Impressions of Arvo Laurila (2005)
- Misery Bay (2001)
- Children of the Kalevala (1997)
- Heikki Heikkinen and Other Stories of Upper Peninsula Finns (1995)
- Hunting Hemingway’s Trout (1990)
- Small Winter Wars (1983)
- Snow White and Others (1971)
Awards:
- 1996-1997 FinnFest guest writer
- 1995 MLA guest writer
- 1994 Honorable Mention, Fiction Contest, Finnish American Reporter
- 1988 Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future
- 1985 Selected for NEH Institute in Commonwealth Literature, Indiana U.
- 1983 Selected for NEH Seminar in Twelfth-Century Civilization, Mt. Holyoke
- 1981 Selected for NEH Seminar in American Humor, U. of New Mexico
Critical Reception:
Anderson has written and received many grants to continue his academic and creative work.
For Back to Misery Bay:
“Lauri Anderson deftly and often humorously captures the love-hate relationship that his Finnish-American characters have with Misery Bay, their hearts’ home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Many of Lauri Anderson’s Finns seem determined to raise their various dysfunctionalities to an art form, but through their very fallibility they tug at our hearts. As one wise old Finn advises his war-shattered nephew, People are really screwed up but love them anyway. They’re all we have.
—Judy Hakola, Lecturer in English, University of Maine
For Hemingway’s Trout:Stories:
This short collection of stories and sketches about Ernest Hemingway and an army of fictional characters who study his work is mildly interesting but lacks the order, tension and overarching theme necessary to form an exciting whole.
- Publishers Weekly
Brief, amateurish essays about Ernest Hemingway here alternate with seven short stories, each constructed around some character or image from Hemingway’s work….some of the individual stories are entertaining, but the collection feels contrived, the prose dated by references to the Sixties. Book budget dollars would be better spent on new editions of Hemingway.
- Library Journal
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Anderson teaches at Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan. Several of his books, including Children of Kalevala, take place in Upper Michigan.