Thanks to Block Portrait Studios and Zak’s Auto Service for their support.
While Albert Park is in the midst of an expansion and renovation, it’s also having a literary moment. Local author Susan Koefod published Albert Park: A Memoir in Lies earlier this year.
- The book: With hints of magical realism and an entirely unreliable narrator, Albert Park: A Memoir in Lies is a thrice-told story of how ghosts haunt the present.
- The author: Koefod has lived in West St. Paul for 30 years. She retired last year and lives with her husband, Kurt, and several dogs and cats. Koefod is also a fiber artist, collecting ribbons at the Dakota County Fair and Minnesota State Fair.
- The event: Amore Coffee is hosting a book event with Koefod on Saturday, Sept. 27 from 3 to 4 p.m. She’ll read from Albert Park, take questions, and sign books.
- The park: Albert Park is being expanded with the Smith/Dodd intersection realignment and renovated next year.
A Conversation With Susan Koefod
We talked with Koefod about the book and Albert Park:
How is the book connected to West St. Paul’s Albert Park?
One day, while talking to our neighbors, I said that Albert Park would be an interesting character name. As I thought about it more, Albert Park the character began to come to life. The fictional Albert Park claims to have been sent as an infant in a cardboard box addressed to the park. He explains that is how he got his name.
The book has had an interesting journey to publication. Can you tell us about the process and how it feels to finally see it in print?
I wrote most of the first part of the novel very quickly, following my quirky character and his trail of lies through settings that were inspired by the area around West St. Paul. I submitted the first 30 pages to the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers, never thinking I had a chance to win one of our state’s most coveted awards for Minnesota Writers. Winning the award and the $25,000 prize gave me a huge validation of my writing talents, and I even thought at the time I would be satisfied if nothing else happened with the book. I received some agent interest in the novel. After a dozen years, I eventually found a publisher, Calumet Editions. During those dozen years, I published a mystery series, a young adult novel, and many short stories and poems. Albert Park: a Memoir in Lies was published early this year, and I just released a collection of my short stories—Escapes and Other Stories also published by Calumet Editions.
The book is steeped in the surreal—what interested you in this perspective of lies and not-quite-reality?
Albert Park is the book I’m proudest of, because of the magical realism quality of the book. I think we all know characters like Albert Park: they are charming people who worked their ways into our lives, even though we know they may not be telling us the truth. They have big dreams and lots of energy. The challenge of making an unreliable narrator convincing, and charming, is a true challenge for a writer.
What do you think of the expansion plans for the real Albert Park? Is it surreal to see the book come out as the park itself is going through such a change?
I have friends who worried that the park might be eliminated in the reworking of the intersection. On another note, in late July, last year, I was hit by a car while crossing the intersection at a green light. My leg broke in several places. Thankfully I wasn’t more seriously injured. I tell friends that my accident is why the intersection is being fixed!
While it may no longer be America’s smallest dedicated park (according to Ripley’s Believe it or Not), I’m glad to see it being expanded and beautified—and also that the memorial to Officer Scott Patrick will be there, too.
I do live very close to the park, a few houses north on Ottawa from Dodd. I can see the intersection from my house, but unfortunately the obelisk is hidden from my view by some buildings on Smith. I’ve always enjoyed our quirky landmark.
Thanks to Susan Koefod for sharing her thoughts with us.
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