Elisa Korenne
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Elisa was to be our featured speaker this year. She is an award-winning songwriter known for her original songs about oddballs in history. Her award-winning debut book, Hundred Miles to Nowhere: An Unlikely Love Story explores what happens when a singer-songwriter moves from New York City to rural Minnesota for love, and find’s there’s more to life than music.
It’s a hundred miles to nowhere
And nowhere’s where I’ve been
Can’t seem to get to somewhere
Though I keep trying
Though Elisa Korenne’s song describes being close to nowhere, Elisa certainly has gotten somewhere with her award-winning memoir called “Hundred Miles to Nowhere: An Unlikely Love Story.”
2018 Finalist, Nancy Pearl Book Award
2018 Finalist, National Indie Excellence Book Awards
2017 Finalist, The Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Bestseller, Midwest Independent Bookseller Association
"Hundred Miles to Nowhere" is a Minnesota love story where two opposite people, with different interests and backgrounds, meet in the middle of nowhere and build a relationship where love triumphs all despite the challenges and obstacles that came their way. We root for Chris and Elisa as they carve out a new life on the frontier of New York Mills, MN.
Elisa engages readers with her storytelling skills and a keen sense of observation as she chronicles life in Minnesota surviving cold winters and a tornado, puzzling over strange foods with odd names, finding her niche within the community, developing relationships with neighbors and writing group and gaining an understanding of up north mentality. All of the stories in the book give the reader glimpses into Elisa’s new life in the Midwest.
Elisa’s songs from her album Concrete propelled the story of her move into a lyrical humorous touching memoir “Hundred Miles to Nowhere.” Lyrics posted at the beginning of each chapter are from a variety of songs found from her albums which then creatively segues into the narrative.
Elisa’s versatility is evident in words and music. The words are musical and her music is lyrically expressive. Her songwriting skills serve her well on her debut memoir. Each word and line is carefully chosen and crafted with the focus and care of song lyrics for which she has become known. It’s a narrative tale of self -discovery written with humor, candor, and humility. She shares her feelings with boldness and authenticity.
Performer, songwriter, and writer Elisa Korenne/Korentayer was educated at Yale University and the London School of Economics. She co-founded the international technology nonprofit Geekcorps before giving up her day job to pursue music under the stage name Elisa Korenne.
Elisa has released five albums to critical praise and performed regionally, nationally, and internationally. Elisa has received writing, songwriting, and performance honors with particular recognition for her Ordinarily Unsung project, intimate song portraits of historical oddballs. Prairie Public Broadcasting created ten mini-music documentaries based on Elisa’s Ordinarily Unsung songs. Her music has been featured on HBO, VH1, MTV, ABC, and PBS.
You can listen, read, and learn more at www.elisakorenne.com and order her book.
Photo Book Launch 2017
Enjoy this link to a one-hour special by Prairie Public broadcasting of her music videos about fascinating individuals in Midwest history. https://youtu.be/rzXgRahtWvM