The Slovak American Society of Washington, D.C.
presents:
“I Am a Brave Bridge: An American Girl’s Hilarious and Heartbreaking Year in the Fledgling Republic of Slovakia”
with Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
Thursday, September 9, 7:30pm EDT
To register for this event on the Zoom platform, please visit:
https://us06web.zoom.us/
You can find the book at https://thornbushpress.com/
If you have any questions about the event, please contact info@dcslovaks.org
I Am a Brave Bridge: An American Girl’s Hilarious and Heartbreaking Year in the Fledgling Republic of Slovakia recounts the Hinlicky family’s move to Svätý Jur, the first town out from Bratislava, in the signal year of 1993, when Slovakia became truly independent for the first time in its whole long history. The book exults in the sheer absurdity of cross-cultural adolescent infatuation, but it also digs deeply into Slovak history, linguistics, politics, and religion. Meditating on perfective verbs and Marxist architecture, central European feminism and American romanticism, finding one’s vocation and the perils of nationalism, I Am a Brave Bridge at long last gives the English-speaking world a portrait of Slovakia to enchant and delight. Move over, Provence. Here comes Slovakia!
In this talk, Sarah will share her third/fourth-generation experience as a Slovak-American, how she came to write this book, why the year 1993 was important to it not only for historical reasons but also technological ones, and why Slovakia’s story might matter even to those without a family or personal connection to it. Last but not least—she’ll explain what on earth that ridiculous title is supposed to mean!
Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is the author and editor of multiple books and over 200 articles, mostly on theological and spiritual themes. She’s the founder of Thornbush Press
and co-host of the podcast “Queen of the Sciences: Conversations between a Theologian and Her Dad.” A Lutheran pastor of the Slovak Zion Synod within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, she currently works at Tokyo Lutheran Church in Japan, serving the English-language congregation. She walks daily, is an avid cook, and even after multiple generations since her ancestors’ immigration (and multiple countries of residence in her own life), she still likes to think of herself as a Slovak, though any Slovak would tell you that she is 100% American.
