School of English alumna Emmi Itäranta launched her debut novel at the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus where the first chapter was written during her studies in 2008. Emmi, who studied for an MA in Creative Writing, presented her first published book at the campus for its UK launch on 5 June.
Her first novel, Memory of Water, is set in a future world and is described as a coming-of-age tale. The main character, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio, is given responsibility for guarding one of the last known freshwater springs. The science fiction novel, which Emmi began writing as a short story as part of her course at Kent, is set to be translated into 14 languages. As Emmi is originally from Finland the book was written concurrently in English and Finnish. She now lives in Canterbury.
Emmi, who secured a two-book deal with well-known publisher Harper Collins has recently returned to Kent from the USA where the book was also launched in New York.
Emmi said: ‘I wrote the first chapter as a short story as part of my dissertation during my studies at Kent and one of my tutors encouraged me to continue writing it as she thought it had the potential as a novel. I never expected I would get my first novel published, so am absolutely delighted. It will be exciting to see how the book is received.’