LitHouse podcast

With her deep and fearless portrayals of German and European history, Jenny Erpenbeck is a unique voice in world literature. Her authorship is widely considered to be among the most important of our time, leaving critics to discuss when, and not if she receives the Nobel prize for literature. This year, her latest novel Kairos was awarded the International Booker prize. In Kairos, we follow an increasingly dysfunctional couple, mirroring the dying nation state of the DDR, where the novel is set. It is a novel about love and passion, but equally about the relationship between power and the arts.In her writing, Erpenbeck combines an acute awareness of history with succinct prose and a daring sense of form and composition. Through short stories, essays, plays and a host of critically acclaimed novels, she explores themes such as identity and memory and shows us the human costs of totalitarian regimes. How does the past continue to shape our present and future?Now, Erpenbeck is joined by author and editor Mattis Øybø at the House of Literature for a conversation on a dark and burning European history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

«The security guard adores babies. Perhaps because babies do not shoplift.Babies adore the security guard. Perhaps because he does not drag babies to the sales.»In a Sephora-store on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a security guard is watching the shoppers. In the early 70's, Ferdinand arrives in Paris to start his new life and needs to learn the ropes. In the 90's, friends Ossiri and Kassoum work nights in the Parisian underground.Three generations of immigrants tell their stories in Standing Heavy, the sensational debut novel from author Armand Patrick Gbaka-Bredé, better known as GauZ'. With playful language, an eventful plot, and tons of observational humour, Standing Heavy is a devilish comedy about France's colonial heritage seen through the eyes of the service class.GauZ' is a French-Ivorian author, editor and publisher based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The novel Debout-Payé was lauded by critics when it was released in 2014, and in 2023 the English translation was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.At the House of Literature, GauZ' meets author and journalist Yohan Shanmugaratnam for a conversation on class, capitalism and the security guard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

«Water remembers. It is humans who forget.»A droplet of water finds its way from ancient Mesopotamia to a street urchin in 1840's London and on to a Yazidi family in present day Iraq. Three people's lives and destinies are connected by two rivers – the Thames and the Tigris – and the water which flows through them.In the novel There Are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak weaves together lost empires, colonial plunder, modern conflicts, and the study of water in a plot stretching from ancient time to the present. With thrill, humour and evocative language, There Are Rivers in the Sky is both enthralling and fascinating, and has been lauded by authors such as Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy and Mary Beard.Turkish-British Elif Shafak is one of the world's foremost writers of historical fiction. Through her fourteen novels, she has explored cultural tensions and socioeconomic inequalities between East and West in historical and contemporary settings. She has also been an active champion of the freedom of speech and of human rights, particularly women's rights, an activism evident in both her fiction and non-fiction. She lives in London in self-imposed exile, after past and continuing threats in Turkey against her work as an author.At the House of Literature, Shafak meets author and journalist Marte Spurkland for a conversation on time, cultural conflicts, and the memory of water. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a Ugandan British writer, known for her debut novel Kintu, as well as the short story collection Manchester Happened and the novel The First Woman. She has been awarded the Coomonwealth Short Story Prize and the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and also been named one of the 100 most influental Africans by New African magazine.This is Makumbi's reading list:Brit Bennett, The Vanishing HalfYvonne Battle-Felton, Curdle CreekChinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart Arrow of GoodNgugi wa Thiong'oWole SoyinkaNamwali Serpell, The Old Drift The FurrowsAyọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Stay With MeAyesha Haruna Attah, The Hundred Wells of SalagaLeila Aboulela, Lyrics Alley River Spirit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois to activist Malcolm X, from heads of state Kwame Nkrumah and Muammar Gaddafi to poet Aimé Césaire and artist Bob Marley – they have all played a role in the history of panafricanism.Panafricanism is a political, intellectual and cultural movement that was first formed around the turn of the last century among Africans in the diaspora, in the UK, the US and the West Indies. They fought for a shared, Black identity, for decolonization of the African continent, and for the Black diaspora to return to Africa to strengthen the continent – with some even calling for a United States of Africa.What role has panafricanism played in the fight for independence in different African countries, and in the creation of Black art, culture and identity? And what is the significance of the new wave of panafricanism today?Hakim Adi is an award-winning professor of history and writer, and the first historian with African roots to become a professor of history in the UK. In this lecture, he will provide a broad introduction to the history of panafricanism.The event was part of Black History Month Norway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of #metoo, the French literary scene has been marked by multiple stories of sexual abuse. Books like Vanessa Springora's Consent and Camille Kouchner's The Familia Grande have sparked debates about abuse culture, consent, and the misuse of authority.Neige Sinno's Sad Tiger can be read as part of this line of publications, while also giving the conversation a literary context. While it is necessary to denounce abuse, doing so is also a burden, and Sinno's approach to dealing with her own story is to turn to fiction. Through analysis of literary works by authors like Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison and Virginie Despentes, she explores power and powerlessness, cultural bias, and finding a language to talk about these experiences.Neige Sinno is a French author and doctor of American literature. Sad tiger is her literary breakthrough, both in France and internationally. A bestseller and the winner of a long list of literary prizes, including Prix Femina, Prix Littéraire Le Monde, and Prix Goncourt des lycéens, the book has been endorsed by authors like Annie Ernaux and Kathrine Nedrejord.Hadia Tajik is a Norwegian politician for Arbeiderpartiet, with a background in journalism, human rights, and law. She will meet Sinno for a conversation on abuse culture and misuse of authority, and how to use fiction as a gateway to shared experiences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For decades, African speculative fiction has weaved together past and future, combining myths and legends with space exploration and social criticism and broadening the scope of both African and speculative literatures.In this original lecture, invited by The House of Literature and recorded digitally, Nigerian author Wole Talabi presents a timeline of African speculative fiction from its early beginnings and until the present day. Here, he reflects on the influence and importance of the genre, citing its central works and defining its distinguishing features.Wole Talabi is a Nigerian engineer and author of speculative fiction currently living in Perth, Australia. His published works include the short story collections Incomplete Solutions (2019) and Convergence Problems (2024), as well as the novel Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (2023), which won the Nommo award for best novel in 2024. His short stories have been nominated for and won several awards, including the Sidewise, Nommo and Locus awards, as well as being awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing.Talabi also compiled a database of published works of African speculative fiction, which he edited from 2015 to 2021. He is also the editor of several anthologies of African speculative fiction, including the landmark publication Africanfuturism. An Anthology (2020) and remains one of the field's chief advocates and central thinkers.Works mentioned:Early Works (1930s – 1960s):Jean-Louis Njemba Medou – Nnanga Kon (1932)Muhammadu Bello Kagara – Gandoki (1934)D.O. Fagunwa – Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1938)Amos Tutuola – The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952)Post-Independence Flourish (1960s – early 2000s):Sony Labou Tansi – Life and A Half (1979)Buchi Emecheta – The Rape of Shavi (1983)Kojo Laing – Woman of the Aeroplanes (1988)Ben Okri – The Famished Road (1991)Kojo Laing – Major Gentl and Achimota Wars (1992)Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o – The Wizard of the Crow (2004/2006)The Internet Age and Genre Recognition (early 2000s – early 2010's)Nnedi Okorafor – Zahrah the Windseeker (2005)Ahmed Khaled Towfik – Utopia (2008) Lauren Beukes – Moxyland (2008)Lauren Beukes – Zoo City (2010)Nnedi Okorafor – Who Fears Death (2010)Ivor Hartmann (ed.) – Afro SF (2012)Increasing Global Recognition (2010s – present):Deji Bryce Olukotun – Nigerians in Space (2014)Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi – Kintu (2014) Tade Thompson – Rosewater (2016)Tochi Onyebuchi – Beasts Made of Night (2017)Akwaeke Emezi – Freshwater (2018)Namwali Serpell – The Old Drift (2019)Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki – Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon (2020)Other works mentioned:Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958)Helen Oyeyemi – The Icarus Girl (2005)Wole Talabi – Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (2023)Weird Tales, fantasy and horror magazineJungle Jim, bi-monthly African pulp fiction magazineOmenana Speculative fiction magazineBlack Panther (dir. Ryan Coogler, 2018)“Afro-mythology and African futurism”, essay by Pamela Phatsimo SunstrumNnedi Okorafor – “Spider the Artist”Phoenix, publishing imprint at Ouida BooksMother, publishing imprint by Jacana MediaChikodili Emelumadu – Dazzling (2023)Yvette Lisa Ndlovu – Drinking from Graveyard Wells (2023)Pemi Aguda – Ghostroots (2024)Tlotlo Tsamaase – Womb City (2024)Suyi Davies Okungbowa – Warrior of The Wind (2023)T. L. Huchu – The Library of The Dead (2021)The Sauúti collective Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The word «dictator» might make you think of a select few evil men of the past, who sat alone on their thrones and ruled far-flung kingdoms with an iron fist. Today's reality is something very different: The autocrats of the world are playing on the same team, doing deals in secrecy to maintain power and keep their riches. They share troll farms and other resources across political lines, either they're communists, nationalists, or Shia radicalists, and hide their wealth in tax havens all over the globe. And Western states play along.This is the current situation, as described by Anne Applebaum in Autocracy, Inc., her new book on the hidden network of autocrats and autocratic regimes that has blossomed since the turn of the century. In the book, Applebaum describes the golden age of dictatorship as she charts the political and economic ties that unite the dictators of the world – often with democratic states as useful idiots or direct facilitators.Anne Applebaum is one of the world's foremost authors of history books, among others The Iron Curtain and the groundbreaking Red Famine. Stalin's War with Ukraine. As a journalist and writer, she is a central voice in the U.S. and Eastern European political scenes and a fierce critic of Western states' moves away from democratic values and principles.Nils August Andresen is a historian and editor of the newspaper Minerva. Since his days as a student in Russia, he has been particularly interested in Putin's rise to power and the threats towards international order.Applebaum met Andresen on stage for a conversation on the new world order – and how they're getting away with it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When British-Ugandan Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi wanted her debut novel Kintu published in Europe, publisher after publisher told her no – the novel was “too African”: It was neither about the colonial period nor about Idi Amin, the two things about Uganda that Western readers have heard of. And also, the characters had such complicated names. They couldn't imagine any European readers would like to learn something new about Uganda and its history.Makumbi's novel is an epic family saga, taking us through the history of Uganda – from the kingdom of Buganda before the arrival of the Europeans, and up to today's society, in which she combines myths and Biblical history with fairytales and oral storytelling tradition. In a distilled, lyrical language, we meet the patriarch Kintu in the mid-eighteenth century, when he is subject to a dark curse, before we follow his many descendants into our own time, where they all, in different ways, struggle with curses of their own. We particularly see how the men of the family struggle to live up to society's masculine ideals. Maybe this is the real curse, affecting each of their lives and slowly poisoning the entire society?Kintu is Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's first novel, published in 2014 after she won a manuscript competition by Kenyan Kwani Trust. Makumbi has since published the short story collection Manchester Happened and the novel The First Woman, and she has won a number of awards for her writing.At the House of Literature, she is joined by author and creative director for the organization Radical Books Collective, Bhakti Shringarpure, for a conversation about a family and a nation, about curses and consolation.The event was supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sonia Nasir is a somewhat successful actor in London. After a distressing end to a love affair, she travels to see her sister in Haifa, Israel, where their father's family is from, and where she's hardly been since she was a teenager. Soon, she is pulled into a local theatre production of Shakespeare's Hamlet on the West Bank. And as the past catches up with Sonia, ghosts appear off stage as well.Enter Ghost is a complex and skillfully composed novel, an exploration of identity and belonging, the role of art, community, and the painful story of a family and a people.Isabella Hammad is a British-Palestinian author. Her debut novel The Parisian won a number of awards, including the Betty Trask Award and the Palestine Book Award, and I 2023, she was included on Granta's prestigious list of Best young British Novelists. Enter Ghost is her second novel.Priya Bains is a poet, an activist and editor of the literary magazine Vinduet. She will join Hammad for a conversation about ghosts and sisters, Hamlet and the occupation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When she began her masterpiece The Handmaid's Tale in 1984, Margaret Atwood was living in West Berlin, just a stone's throw away from the Wall to East Berlin, with its omnipresent secret police. The world behind the Iron Curtain clearly influenced her famous future dystopia, in which she set as a rule that she would not include any horrors that humans had not already done in some other place or time in history.On the other side of the Wall, author Jenny Erpenbeck grew up in the east, the German Democratic Republic (DDR), experiencing the country's zenith as well as its disintegration and the victorious capitalist West just a few years later. In her award winning body of work, Erpenbeck has gone on to explore the complex history of Germany and greater Europe, where ordinary citizens become hostages to the grand ideas and ruptures of the times.Both Atwood and Erpenbeck are concerned with totalitarianism, with history and how it informs the present and the future, with our fragile normality, and how quickly it can turn into brutality. While they write lyrical and innovative fiction - incorporating mythology, literature and philosophy - the links to the world around us, either past, present or futures we are headed towards, are always there.Margaret Atwood has published more than 70 books of poetry, short story collections, novels, children's books,and essay collections. Stories like The Handmaid's Tale and the MaddAddam trilogy have made her a name across the world, and a number of her books have been adapted to film, TV, opera and ballet, and, like Erpenbeck, she is regularly mentioned as a favorite for the Nobel prize in literature.Jenny Erpenbeck is the author of a number of critically acclaimed and award winning novels, short story collections, plays and essays. Her latest novel, Kairos, won the 2024 International Booker Prize.In this event, these two exceptional authors met for the first time on stage, for a conversation about history and society, memory and hope for the future. The conversation was moderated by Helge Jordheim, professor of cultural history at the University of Oslo.The conversation took place on November 2st, 2024 in The University of Oslo's Ceremonial Hall. LitHouse is a podcast from the House of Literature in Oslo, presenting adapted versions of lectures and conversations featuring international writers and thinkers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadian author Margaret Atwood is a living legend. Since her debut in 1961 with the poetry collection Double Persephone, she has published more than 70 books of poetry, short story collections, novels, children's books, essay collections and even opera librettos, including the world-renowned novels The Handmaid's Tale and the MaddAddam trilogy. Atwood has truly made her mark with her literary explorations of totalitarianism, patriarchal structures and environmental destruction, and is known for her almost prophetic speculative fiction, set in societies curbing women's rights or experiencing a worldwide pandemic or environmental collapse.In her literature, Atwood is mischievous, fearless and original, frequently incorporating elements from classical texts, fairytales and works by writers like William Shakespeare or George Orwell. While her books often include elements from historical events, they also suggest new worlds and possibilities for the future.Atwood was joined by journalist and writer Karin Haugen for a conversation about the past and the present, prophetic stories and her unique body of work. This conversation was hosted by The House of Literature in Oslo and took place on October 31st, 2024 at the Oslo Opera House. LitHouse is a podcast from The House of Literature in Oslo, presenting adapted versions of lectures and conversations featuring international writers and thinkers. Music by Apothek. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can Africa reach its full potential when Europe is still the blueprint to model oneself after? Not only has centuries of colonization and exploitation stripped the continent of opportunities, but the term “development” has all but become synonymous with following in Europe's footsteps.This is the argument of Senegalese academic Felwine Sarr in his book Afrotopia, which has had great influence in academic as well as public discourse. In it, he explores the possibility of a new Africa, with the help of African thinkers, artists and philosophic traditions. Africa needs a utopia, a goal to strive towards, without comparing themselves to others, Sarr says. How might such an afrotopia look?Felwine Sarr is a leading academic and a prominent voice in public discourse. He is professor in economics at the Gaston-Berger University in Senegal, and professor of French and francophone studies at Duke University, USA, as well as a musician and the author of several novels. Together with the philosopher Achille Mbembe, he has established Les Ateliers De La Pensée, which gathers academics and writers from across Africa and the diaspora. In 2018, commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron, Sarr and the French art historian Bénédicte Savoy authored a seminal report on repatriation of African cultural artifacts from French museums.Andreas Liebe Delsett is a writer and former artistic director at the House of Literature, currently working on a book about South Africa's recent history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The author of twelve novels, along with a number of non-fiction books and plays, Rachel Cusk is one of our most prominent contemporary writers. Her brave, razor sharp and original voice has made her a favourite with readers and critics alike.Cusk is a truly innovative writer, pushing the boundaries of the form for each new publication. Already in 2008, when she published her brutally honest depiction of motherhood A Life's Work, she was miles ahead of contemporary feminist discourse. Her Outline trilogy was considered by many critics a revolution of the novel form.Her latest novel Parade is no different. Here, Cusk continues her exploration of unconventional structures, delving into the lives of a number of artists all referred to with the initial G. Their stories are told through a nameless narrator moving seamlessly in and out of the different tales. The result is a boldly composed exploration of the role of the artist and what drives someone to create art, a novel about how both art and artist are shaped by society's gaze. In Parade, Cusk dissects interpersonal relationships and existential questions with precision and clarity.In The University of Oslo's Ceremonial Hall, Cusk will be joined by journalist and publisher Jessika Gedin, for a conversation about the connections between art and life, about gender roles, the artist and how we human beings are able to live side by side. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lately, much attention has been given to political attacks on prestigious writers. The attempted murder of Salman Rushdie and the deplatforming of Adania Shibli at the Frankfurt Book Fair sparked international outrage and raised awareness of ongoing threats to individual writers today.Far less attention is given to the fact that across the world, writers are prosecuted and jailed for their supposed dissidence to autocratic regimes. Turkey is among the world leaders in its number of jailed authors, a trend that increases wherever war and conflict can form a forgiving political climate.What is the effect of political persecution on individual writers? And how does such a climate affect the writers who remain “free”?For decades, Yasemin Çongar has been one of Turkey's most renowned journalists and oppositional voices to the Turkish regime. Since 2016, she has herself been on trial for her journalism, and is still fighting a lengthy prison sentence.In 2018, Çongar also founded the Kıraathane literature house in Istanbul, where she worked as director until March 2023. At Kıraathane, as well as through her work as a translator and writer, Çongar has helped raise awareness of the challenges faced by writers today.Now, Çongar visits the House of Literature for a philosophical and personal lecture on freedom, creativity, and the transcendent power of literature. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Igoni Barrett is a Nigerian writer of novels and short stories, especially well known for his award-winning novel 2015 Blackass. In 2014, he was named on the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of African writers under 40. Barrett is also part of the House of Literature's artistic council, advising in our project to promote African literature.This is Igoni Barrett's reading list:Abdulrazak Gurnah, Afterlives (Etterliv)Zoe Wicomb, You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town (Ingen går seg vill i Cape Town)Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (De blåeste øyne) JazzAlex Haley, Roots (Røtter)Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (Usynlig mann)Yambo Ouloguem, Le devoir de violence (Bound To Violence)Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (Menneskenes mest fordekte minne) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do the Mings, The Rameses', the Romanovs, the Assads and the Clintons have in common? They are all family dynasties who, for better or worse, have influenced the history of the world.Historian and writer Simon Sebag Montefiore is a formidable storyteller, and his detailed and engaging works about historical figures such as Catherine the Great, Stalin and the Romanovs have earned him readers across the globe. In his most recent book, The World – A Family History of Humanity, his focus is no less than the entire world history, told through some of the most central family dynasties.More than an ambitious and grand project, Montefiore's latest colossal publication is also an exploration and re-thinking of how we tell history. “World history often has themes, not people; biography has people, not themes,” as he writes in the book's introduction.By emphasizing the family, he is able to combine the two – the great historical events with the stories of the people in the midst of it all. He also gives more space to the role of women, and tells parts of the world's history that might not be as well known among most Norwegian and European readers, such as Sundiata Keita's kingdom in Mali, Itzcoatl and the founding of the Aztek kingdom, and Ashoka and the Mauyrya empire in ancient India.Diving into world history with Montefiore on stage is Shazia Majid, award-winning journalist and author of the book Ut av skyggene (“Out of the Shadows”), about the first generation of Pakistani migrant workers in Norway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lecture by Denise DeCaires NarainThis lecture introduces two of the most prolific Caribbean women writers, Jean Rhys and Jamaica Kincaid, comparing their distinctive styles and thematic focus. Both writers have spoken of the significance of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in their writing lives and the lecture will explore how this plays out in their work, particularly in their respective engagements with anger and madness.For many feminist critics, Bertha Mason, Jane Eyre's “mad woman in the attic, encapsulates the fury of women excluded (or expelled) by patriarchal structures. In this lecture, Denise DeCaires Narain argues that the unique forms that Rhys and Kincaid deploy give shape to that fury in productive and stylish ways.Denise DeCaires Narain has worked at the University of Sussex for a number of years, where her research has focused especially on Caribbean writers and postcolonial literature. In this lecture, she offers a unique introduction to two of the most prominent writers from the Caribbean: Jean Rhys and Jamaica Kincaid. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leila Aboulela is a Sudanese writer, currently living in Scotland. She is the author of six award winning novels, including The Translator (1999), Bird Summons (2019) and River Spirit (2023), as well as a number of plays and short story collections. Aboulela was the first ever winner of the Caine Prize for Fiction, and an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.This is Leila Aboulela's reading list:Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow KingTayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North The Wedding of ZeinNaguib Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street) The Thief and the dogs Ahdaf Soueif, In the Eye of the SunFatin Abbas, Ghost Season Isabella Hammad, The Parisian Enter Ghost In this podcast series the House of Literature in Oslo, Norway invites writers and thinkers to talk about their work, what they read and present their reading list from the African continent and diaspora. Host in this episode Åshild Lappegård LahnEditing and production by the House of LiteratureMusic by Ibou CissokhoThe House of Literature's project to promote African literature is supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Strout is one of the most distinct voices in contemporary American literature, and beloved by readers and critics alike. Her international breakthrough came with the novel Olive Kitteridge, which earned her the 2009 Pulitzer Prize, and which was later adapted into the award winning mini series of the same name. Since then, she has written four books in her Lucy Barton series; My Name Is Lucy Barton, Anything Is Possible, Oh, William! and Lucy by the Sea.Her Lucy novels tell stories about exposedness, poverty, grief and childhood trauma, but also about the value of hope, art and love. Lucy grows up in a poor and dysfunctional family in the Illinois countryside and becomes a writer against all odds. Through her village upbringing and different periods in Lucy's life, the novels depicts her slow awakening as a writer, someone who tells stories, who gives the world meaning through language.In Strout's novels and short stories, the great drama unfolds within unassuming everyday life. The emotional lives of ordinary people are portrayed with depth, warmth and complexity, while she simultaneously shows a keen eye for the larger societal structures and systems of which we, consciously or unconsciously, are part.At the House of Literature, Strout is joined by writer Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold for a conversation about family, community and change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elizabeth Strout is one of the most distinct voices in contemporary American literature, and beloved by readers and critics alike. She started writing at an early age, but it would take her many years to finally get published. Back then, her mantra was “just keep going”.This year, Strout's debut novel, Amy and Isabelle, is finally available in Norwegian (translated by Hilde Rød-Larsen). Her international breakthrough came with the novel Olive Kitteridge, which earned her the 2009 Pulitzer Prize, and which was later adapted into the award-winning mini series of the same name. Since then, she has written four books in her Lucy Barton series; My Name Is Lucy Barton, Anything Is Possible, Lucy by the Sea and Oh, William! – which have earned Strout a reputation of an unafraid and deeply thoughtful writer.«You can't write fiction and be careful,» Strout has said. Growing up in a small, rural town with a strict family – similarly to her beloved character Lucy Barton – books were miracles and refuges – places in which she realized she was not alone.In this personal lecture, Strout will talk about her journey from when she first started to write, and to becoming a published author, highlighting some of the authors and books that have shaped and influenced her along the way, such as Alice Munro, Eudora Welty and Ernest Hemingway. A constant observer of those around her, she will talk about where she finds inspiration for her characters and how she learned to throw caution to the wind. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer and therapist Glenn Bech sparked a larger debate about class issues in Denmark with his autobiographical novel The Fathership (forthcoming in Hazel Evans' translation) and his manifesto Jeg anerkænder ikke længere jeres autoritet (“I no longer recognize your authority”).The novel The Fathership depicts a brutal childhood characterized by violence, betrayals and toxic masculinity, but that also has a tenderness and love for the families and working class community portrayed. The novel was praised by the literary establishment, and the following year, Bech published Jeg anerkænder ikke længere jeres autoritet (“I no longer recognize your authority”), a furious manifesto about class struggle, the proletariat and the elite. In a self-scrutinizing, loud and emphatic prose, Bech rails against class contempt and the economic blind spots within the cultural middle class, showing the reader what it is like to be exposed, gay and poor.Masculinity, homophobia and class are central issues in British poet and author Andrew McMillan's critically acclaimed debut novel Pity. The book portrays three generations of men, spanning from the heyday of the coal industry, with long days of back-breaking labour in the mines, to a present characterized by unemployment and loneliness. In a sparse but urgent tone and with an eye for the raw and vulnerable, McMillan explores today's gender roles for men, and how the past affects the present. At the same time, the book is a tribute to the working class and an invitation to reflection, change and acceptance.McMillan and Bech are joined by writer and journalist Kristofer Folkhammar for a conversation about poverty, class and toxic gender roles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

History is written by the victorious. But do we not also need to hear the story from the other side, from ordinary people caught in the middle of historical upheavals, forced to pick a side, or just try to survive? To those relegated to the footnotes in the history books, or not mentioned at all.This can be said to be the starting point for the novels of Sudanese-Scottish Leila Aboulela and Ethiopian-American Maaza Mengiste, both writing about historical events in their home countries.The backdrop in Aboulela's new novel River Spirit is the dramatic time in the Sudan's history in the late 19th century. In the span of just a few years, the country underwent several occupations, as well as a bloody revolution led by a man claiming to be al-Mahdi (the Islamic Messiah). Through a multitude of voices from different sides of the conflicts, and with the young orphaned girl Akuany as a turning point, Aboulela leads us through a central historical time in the Sudan.A young, poor woman is also central in Maaza Mengiste's The Shadow King, telling the story of 1935 Ethiopia invaded by Mussolini's Italy. Told from as different perspectives as Ethiopia's emperor Haile Selassie, the Italian soldier Ettore and the servant girl Hirut, the novel offers a complex picture of the events. Mengiste has emphasized that she was particularly interested in exploring women's role in the resistance movement.Mengiste was born in Ethiopia, and is currently living in the United States. She has explored Ethiopia's recent history in both her critically acclaimed novels Beneath the Lion's Gaze and The Shadow King, with the latter shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize. Mengiste has also made her mark as a photographer and an essayist.Aboulela was born in the Sudan, today she lives in Scottland. She has published a number of award winning novels, short story collections and plays. River Spirit is the first novel in a planned series exploring Scotland's role in the British colonization of the Sudan.At the House of Literature, Aboulela and Mengiste meet writer and creative director of the Radical Books Collective, Bhakti Shringarpure, for a conversation about writing historical fiction, and about foregrounding the stories of women and ordinary people within big historical events. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The year is 1949, and the state of Israel is in its infancy. In the Negev desert, bordering Egypt, Israeli armed forces have set up camp with the mission to “cleanse it of any remaining Arabs” after the war the preceding year. They happen upon a Beduin family, a teenage girl among them, whom the soldiers rape, kill and bury in the desert.In present-day Ramallah, a young woman discovers these events through a small newspaper story. It catches her attention because the events took place exactly 25 years before the day she was born. The woman becomes compelled to find out what actually happened in that desert, and embarks upon a highly dangerous journey to come to the bottom of the story.Adania Shibli is a critically acclaimed Palestinian writer, and holds a PhD in media and cultural studies. She has published three novels in Arabic, and Minor Detail is the first to be translated into Norwegian. While slim in size, the novel contains far more than the modest number of pages would suggest. Shibli explores themes such as belonging and loss, depicting the everyday absurdities under a normalized occupation. Shibli's language is precise and sparse, the story concise. The many gaps in the story creates a tension, quivering beneath the surface and increasing by each page.The novel was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021, and in 2023, it won the prestigious German LiBeraturpreis. However, they chose to postpone the award ceremony indefinitely after Hamas's terror attack on October 7th and Israel's following war on Gaza, a decision met with extensive criticism internationally.At the House of Literature, Shibli will meet writer colleague Maaza Mengiste for a conversation about language, the past, borders and all the minor details that make up our reality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freedom of expression is never absolute, but subject to laws and social conventions. Threats to freedom of thought and speech can come directly from authoritarian states or religious institutions. But they can also be self-inflicted, in the form of self-censorship. Both forms of censorship exist in democracies as well as dictatorship, and often overlap.Throughout history, authors in particular have been made the object of the limitations set by powerful institutions, be it by explicit decree or through the trepidations felt at writing challenging or shocking literature.Few know this landscape better than historian, author and critic Ian Buruma. He has written a host of books on East Asian (especially Chinese and Japanese) culture and history, the West and Islam, and European history, including this year's The Collaborators. Buruma is also highly respected columnist and critic for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, the latter of which he also served as editor-in-chief.This evening, Buruma will give an introductory lecture on how censorship has shaped culture and the arts in both Eastern and Western countries, before being interviewed by author and professor of cultural history at the University of Oslo, Helge Jordheim. He will join Buruma on stage for a conversation on how threats to expression have changed over time, and the challenges that writers face today.This event marks the beginning of The House of Literature's series on “Forbidden books”, which sheds light on the ways in which literature is made forbidden, censored, or otherwise suppressed, historically and today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The year is 1995, and 16 year old Shy is sneaking out of the rural boarding school for “difficult” boys, named “Last Chance”. A long history of petty crime, expulsions and frustrated family members has brought him here, but now it is all soon over. With a spliff in his pocket and his Walkman loaded with his drum ‘n' bass favourites, he's ready. His rucksack is filled with rocks, and his head is swimming with memories of all his failures and times he fucked it up.Shy is a compositionally ambitious and lyrical character study with troubled youth as its subject. Through frequent flashbacks and interjections, Shy provides us with glimpses of a difficult childhood leading to a young man at the verge of self-annihilation. Shy is a tender story of depression and not being able to fit in, told with great compassion and nuance. At the same time, the novel is a fervent ode to the outsiders of the 90s and to the culture and music that embraced them, those who no one else wanted.Max Porter is a British author and editor at the publishing house Granta. With his experimental and innovative novels, in particular Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, he has established himself as one of his generation's most exciting voices and acquired a large readership among critics and with the general public. Even other writers like Douglas Stuart, PJ Harvey and George Saunders have expressed their admiration for Porter and his trilogy of novels on boyhood, which Shy now completes.Another writer who has followed Porter's career with curiosity and excitement is Norwegian author and editor at Tiden, Mattis Øybø. He will meet Porter for a conversation on Shy, masculinity and how best to bring the outsiders back in. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you understand why I've decided to tell you about our family? If our stories survive, we will not die, even when our bodies are no longer here on this earth.The Vietnam war was a watershed event in the Cold War as well as in the West's understanding of itself. But what does the story look like from a Vietnamese perspective?In Vietnam, the war is still a traumatic experience. This is what writer Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai explores in her novel The Mountains Sing, in which we alternately follow the girl Huong and her grandmother Diệu Lan.While the rest of the family has been scattered across the country, Huong and Diệu Lan tries to make it through the days with the help of stories. Huong disappears into books like Pinocchio and Treasure Island, or listens to her grandmother sharing her life story, where Nguyễn takes us through the history of Vietnam in the last hundred years, from a colony under Japan and the brutal reforms of the communist regime in the 1950s and through the horrific years of the Vietnam war. Is reconciliation at all possible after decades of abuse and with families torn apart?Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai has published a number of poetry collections in Vietnamese, and in The Mountains Sing, her first novel in English, this background from poetry is clearly visible. She balances the dark story with a vivid and lyrical language, and through the novel's chorus of voices, she challenges the black and white picture we know from history books and Hollywood movies. The novel has been met with critical acclaim, and won her the International Book Award and the PEN Oakland/ Josephine Miles Literary Award.When Nguyễn visited the House of Literature, she was joined by translator and artistic advisor for the Norwegian Festival of Literature, Yukiko Duke, for a conversation about memories, reconciliation and Vietnam's bloody history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In some other world, in some other life, Pinto might've prayed in the morning, prayed his šaharit, prayed to be relieved of his abhorrent passion. But the only prayer that came to his mind now was to the Lord to let him keep Osman for the rest of time, for his voice to be the last thing he would hear before slipping into la gran eskuridad. Rafael Pinto is a young Jewish apothecary in Sarajevo, Bosnia, with big dreams and a penchant for opium. One summer day in 1914 he witnesses the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand, and suddenly Pinto is thrust into life as a soldier in the Great War. There he meets Osman, a handsome Muslim soldier who charms Pinto with his bravery and talent for storytelling, and between them blossoms a boundless love which shall follow them through the war and to the ends of the Earth.Aleksandar Hemon's The World and All That It Holds is a grandiose historical novel that combines historical fact with a rich and fabulous prose. With events set in a multicultural Europe in great social upheaval, Hemon deploys a distinctly lyrical prose, mixing in languages and expressions from all corners and cultures, showing a broad history and a multiform world. The result is a highly original, yet archetypal story of undying love and one man's fight to save something worth living for as the world as he knows it is collapsing around him.Bosnian American Aleksander Hemon is one of the most central authors of his generation. With novels such as The Lazarus Project and Nowhere Man, alongside his many short stories, Hemon has written himself into the contemporary American canon and garnered readers all over the world. This year, he returns with The World and All That It Holds, perhaps his most ambitious project yet.In conversation with Hemon is renowned author, critic, and editor John Freeman. He has long followed Hemon's career as a writer and metHemon on stage for a conversation on love in wartime and the explosive power of literature. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A masseuse who rises in the ranks to become Himmler's confidant. A cross-dressing princess who spies for Japanese secret police in China. A Dutch Jew who personally hands over his friends to the Nazis and the gas chambers.The Collaborators is the story of three most unusual lives, all of whom served the other side during World War II. But it is also the story of their legacies and the ways in which the writing of history can become the falsification of history: The Dutchman and the spy were both remembered as martyrs, while the masseuse was awarded the Red Cross Medal barely three years after the end of the war.Why were these people exempted from post-war reckoning and social stigma? How are they remembered today, and what do they tell us about how history is written and remembered?Ian Buruma is a Dutch historian, author and professor of human rights and journalism. In over four decades he has written popular and respected books on culture and history, with special emphasis on Europe, Japan and China. With books such as Year Zero. A History of 1945 and The Wages of Guilt. Memories of War in Germany and in Japan, Buruma has explored Western and Eastern history writing and mythologisation of traitors and interlopers. The Collaborators adds to this with its empathic and well-written portrait of three complex characters from the Second World War.Journalist and author Marte Michelet put the question of guilt among Norway's resistance movement on the agenda with her book What Did the Home Front Know?, which became the centre of much debate. She has read and enjoyed the Collaborators and met Buruma on stage for a conversation on injustice, guilt, and the writing of history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the novel Glory, we find ourselves in the fictional country Jidada, which is peopled with all kinds of animals; bleating sheep, a confident pig preacher, vicious dogs making up the country's security forces, and at the very top: the Old Horse, who has ruled the country with an iron hoof ever since independence. He is «the longest-serving leader in a continent of long-serving leaders, and indeed in the whole wide world».Author NoViolet Bulawayo has drawn inspiration both from George Orwell's classic Animal Farm and the African tradition of animal fables in her allegorical story of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's fall.In a bubbling and playful language, where satirical quips, twitter updates and razor sharp observations all follow each other, Bulawayo tells the story of the coup against Mugabe as it plays out among the animals on the Seat of Power as well as among the public. Through the goat Destiny, returned after years in exile, we get an outsider's view on the events, and in a vivid mother-daughter portrait, we follow Destiny and her mother in a journey back to a part of the country's bloody history that has long been silenced.The result is a masterly satirical story in which Bulawayo explores universal themes such as freedom and repression, hope and justice, showing us how the story is relevant far beyond the borders of Zimbabwe, in a world where authoritarianism is on the rise.Writer NoViolet Bulawayo is the first African woman to appear on the prestigious Booker list twice, first for her 2013 debut We Need New Names and then for her second novel Glory in 2022. She has taught creative writing at Stanford for many years, and her own writing has earned her a number of prizes and accolades.At the House of Literature, Bulawayo was joined by poet and writer Priya Bains for a conversation about fables and animals, literary playfulness, and Zimbabwe's recent history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the world's greatest living writers, and is frequently cited as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature. It is truly a momentous occasion that Oates will visit the House of Literature, and in doing so will be visiting Norway for the very first time.Through more than one hundred books spanning most genres, the American legend writes tenderly and with precision about our societies' great questions.«The opposite of language is silence and silence for human beings is death», Oates said after receiving the prestigious National Book Award for her 1969 novel Them. The novel is considered one of her major works, and will now be available in Norwegian translation for the first time. In Them, we follow a forking class family living under harsh conditions in Detroit, from the 1930s and until the bloody race riots in 1967.Oates has also written fiction based on real events or people, such as her best-selling novel Blonde, based on Marilyn Monroe's life and death, which was adapted into a film in 2022. Her latest novel, Babysitter, is set in the aftermath of a number of unsolved child-killings in Detroit in the 1970s. Here, Oates explores racism, sexual harassment and institutional abuse in ways that make the story feel deeply relevant, even to today's society marked by MeToo and Black Lives Matter.The core of her writing, according to Oates herself, is to “be a witness” – to tell the stories of those who have no one speaking for them. She writes about racism, misogyny, violence and social injustices with a keen eye for politics and history, combined with deep psychological insight and literary precision.Oates has won a number of literary prizes for her extensive body of work. She has been a professor of creative writing at Princeton University and UC Berkeley for many years and a central literary mentor for writers such as Jonathan Safran Foer and Mohsin Hamid.When the author visits Norway and the House of Literature for the very first time, the event will take place in the University of Oslo's ceremonial hall, so that as many people as possible can take part in the event. Here, she will meet writer and journalist Karin Haugen for a conversation about a long writing life and the power of literature. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2021, Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the first African-born writer to receive the award in close to 20 years. The Swedish Academy awarded Gurnah the prize «for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents».Across the world, more and more readers are discovering Gurnah's body of work. His novels Paradise, Afterlives and Desertion explore the history of East Africa and Zanzibar, while other works, such as Admiring Silence and By the Sea, portray a migrant's encounter with British society. What they all have in common are the memorable characters created by Gurnah, characters that are not heroes, but rather unique in their quiet everydayness, and who often feel alienated from the world around them.Through these characters, Gurnah gives us masterful depictions of a region and its history, of the colonial era, of exile and migration. In a quiet revolution, he shifts the perspective from the familiar, Western narrative to an East African point of view, leading us into great history as seen through the eyes of ordinary people.“Gurnah's novels are stunningly beautiful, immersive and enticing. He exceeds all others in depicting the lives of those made small by injustice and oppression”, writer Leila Aboulela has said about Gurnah's writing, with which she has a strong connection. Aboulela grew up in Sudan, and currently lives in Scotland. She has published a number of plays, short story collections and novels, most recently River Spirit.Aboulela will join Abdulrazak Gurnah for a conversation about his body of work, about writing the history of East Africa, migration, colonial history, and the unique portraits of characters and relationships he gives us in his books.The event was supported by Norad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do artists have a social responsibility? Should art be «pure» and not related to ethical or political issues? What, exactly, is the role of art? These are questions that the American author Joyce Carol Oates has dealt with through a long writing life, both as an author and as a professor in creative writing at University of Princeton and UC Berkeley.Oates is a legend, and the author of more than 100 books. Known for memorable titles such as Blond, Them, Black Water, The Gravedigger's Daughter, We Were the Mulvaneys and Babysitter. She has been a consistent favorite for the Nobel Prize of literature the last 25 years, and has been a mentor to writers such as Jonathan Safran Foer and Mohsin Hamid. In this lecture, Oates talks about the role of art and that of inspiration and the wellspring of creativity, examined through the work of contemporary writers and poets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Masande Ntshanga is a writer and poet, an editor of New Contrast Magazine and a teacher of creative writing. For his debut novel The Reactive, he was awarded the Betty Trask Award, while his second novel, Triangulum, was nominated for the Nommo Prize for Best Speculative Fiction Novel written by an African. His latest book is the 2020 chapbook Native Life in the Third Millennium.This is Masande's reading list:Imraan Coovadia, Tales of the Metric System A Spy in TimeK. Sello Duiker, The Quiet Violence of DreamsNjabulo Ndebele, Fools and Other StoriesIn this podcastseries the House of Literature in Oslo, Norway invites writers and thinkers to talk about their work, what they read and present their readinglist from the African continent and diaspora. Host in this episode Åshild Lappegård LahnEditing and production by the House of LiteratureMusic by Ibou CissokhoThe House of Literature's project to promote African literature is supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maaza Mengiste is a writer, photographer and teacher of creative fiction at Wesleyan University. Her 2010 debut novel, Beneath the Lion's Gaze, depicts the bloody revolution in 1970s Ethiopia, and was named one of the 10 Best Contemporary African Books by the Guardian. Her second novel The Shadow King, portraying the Italo-Ethiopian war of the 1930s, was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker prize in 2020.This is Maaza Mengiste's reading list:Ama Ata Aidoo, Our Sister KilljoyMaya Binyam, HangmanMihret Sibhat, The History of a Difficult ChildTsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous ConditionsIn this podcastseries the House of Literature in Oslo, Norway invites writers and thinkers to talk about their work, what they read and present their readinglist from the African continent and diaspora. Host in this episode Åshild Lappegård LahnEditing and production by the House of LiteratureMusic by Ibou CissokhoThe House of Literature's project to promote African literature is supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The year is 2043, and an astronomer at the South-African Space Agency receives a package filled with documents, which contain a warning that the earth will end in 10 years.The documents are diary entries and audio tapes by a girl, relaying first her adolescence in the 1990s, when she explores her sexuality and tries to find her mother, who disappeared without a trace when she was little, and then moving to her daily life as an adult.Through the history of the girl, we see how South-Africa's dark past is still shaping its present, and mirrored in a dystopian future, where environmental issues are rampant, and social issues is solved by creating work camps across the country.In his novel Triangulum, Masande Ntshanga combines different genres in a story which illustrates, convincingly, that South-Africa's dystopian past is far from a closed chapter.Ntshanga is the author of two novels and a chapbook. His debut The Reactive won him the debut prize the Betty Trask Award, while Triangulum was nominated for the Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by and African.At the House of Literature, Ntshanga is joined by editor and translator Julia Wiedlocha for a conversation about adolescence and technology, future dystopias, and the dark shadow of colonialism.The event is supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

«I've always found Science Fiction to be a form that's irrevocably linked to critiques of power and societal structures,» writer Masande Ntshanga has said. During his adolescence, he read a lot of science fiction, and his latest novel, Triangulum, makes use of several elements from the genre.Science fiction, speculative fiction and afrofuturism are literary genres on the rise on many countries, including Norway and Ntshanga's home country, South Africa. What makes science fiction the preferred genre in which to explore possible future scenarios, or in which to pick apart contemporary power structures?In this personal lecture, Ntshanga will talk about what science fiction literature has meant to him as a reader and writer, and about the significance of the genre for writers who want to imagine another world.Masande Ntshanga is a South African writer, poet and editor of New Contrast Magazine. For his debut novel The Reactive, he was awarded the Betty Trask Award, while his second novel, Triangulum, was nominated for the Nommo Prize for Best Speculative Fiction Novel written by an African. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is transgender literature? Is it simply works by writers who identify as transgender? Or might it be thought of as a lens to read through, or a certain kind of attention? If it is the latter: in what tradition might we locate transgender literature?In this talk, American author Torrey Peters will argue for finding the roots of current transfeminine literature in older works that explore the performance of masculinity, works that in fact have been popularly accepted as containing little ambivalence about the meanings of gender. The primary focus will be on Ernest Hemingway, but with slight detours into Per Petterson, Thomas Mann, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Evelyn Waugh, and the pharmacology of steroid regimens taken by extreme bodybuilders.Torrey Peters rocketed into the international literary scene with her debut novel Detransition, Baby, a warm and intelligent exploration of gender, parenthood and trans life. The novel was among other prizes nominated for The Women's Prize for Fiction, and is celebrated for its complex trans characters and for painting a truthful picture of the New York trans scene. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Torrey Peters rocketed into the international literary scene with her debut novel Detransition, Baby, the first novel written by a trans woman to become an international best seller. Peters explores the complexeties of trans life, and compares transitioning to cis women starting over after a divorce: Everything you thought you knew about the future has to be scrapped, and you have to create a new identity that society doesn't have any rules for.The novel portrays Reese, a trans woman who always wanted children, her transgendered ex-partner Ames and his pregnant girlfriend. Can the three of them be parents together, and if so, what would that look like? Who are their role models? How can trans women creates good lives, when so many aspects of ordinary life are still unavailable to them?Detransition, Baby, now available in Kirsti Vogt's Norwegian transalation, gives a unique insight into the everyday dilemmas trans people meet. The novel was among other prizes nominated for The Women's Prize for Fiction, and is celebrated for its complex trans characters and for painting a truthful picture of the New York trans scene.Author and literary critic Carline Tromp will meet Peters for a conversation about gender, sexuality, family, and starting over.The conversation will start with an introduction by Christine Marie Jentoft, adviser for gender diversity at FRI, who has been an important voice in the Norwegian trans debate for over 10 years. She received an honorary prize from PKI in 2022 for her work for equality for the lgbt+ community, and was elected Queer Role Model of the year during the 2023 Rainbow Galla. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

«Every time we say it can't get any worse it does,» writer Tsitsi Dangarembga has said about the situation in her home country Zimbabwe.The UNs special envoy has reacted to the arbitrary arrests of activists and politicians from the opposition. Last year, Dangarembga was herself convicted after partaking in a peaceful protest with one other activist in 2020. While large parts of the middle class and cultural elite has left Zimbabwe, Dangarembga has staid put and fought for change. Now she debates moving countries.Across the world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to protest governments and large corporations. Environmental activists are especially vulnerable: According to the human rights organization Global Witness, 200 environmental activists were murdered across the world in 2021 alone.In 2016, South African activist Nonhle Mbuthuma lost a close friend and colleague. Ever since, she has lived with constant death threats in her work to protect the nature and community where she lives, on the east coast of South Africa.Mbuthuma and Dangarembga will join for a conversation about the conditions for human rights and civil society in Zimbabwe and South Africa. How do you keep fighting for grass roots engagement and change under such perilous conditions?Moderating the conversation is Bergdís Jóelsdóttir. She has worked with civil society and human rights initiatives in Southern Africa for a number of years, and is currently the policy director for Amnesty International Norway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just weeks after the historical film Ellos Eatnu/Let the River Flow had premiered, lead actress and activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen was back in chains – for real, this time. Together with fellow Sami activists, she barricaded the Department of Oil and Energy, to protest that the authorities have done nothing in the 500 days since Norway's Supreme Court ruled that the wind park in Fosen violates the human rights of Sami reindeer herders in the area.South African Nonhle Mbuthuma has also fought for her people's land and rights. Together with her community, the indigenous group in Pondoland, she took the Australian mining company Transworld Energy and Minerals to court – and won.Hætta Isaksen and Mbuthuma both fight a double fight, for nature and for indigenous people's right to their culture and traditions. For many indigenous activists, the environmental struggle is seen as an integrated part of the fight against extractivism – extracting natural resources for export and sale – and that against colonialism.For Mbuthuma, her fight is a continuation of earlier generations' fight for the same land, against colonial powers and the apartheid state. Mbuthuma is the founder of the organization Amadiba Crisis Committee, which is fighting for the land and community in Pondoland on the east coast of South Africa.Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen is an activist, a musician with her band Isák, and an actress.When the two of them meet for a conversation about environmental struggle and indigenous rights, they are joined by Silje Ask Lundberg, former president of Friends of the Earth Norway and a senior campaigner for the organization Oil Change International. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Through more than 30 years, Zimbabwean Tsitsi Dangarembga has made her mark as a writer and director. With her trilogy of novels following Tambu, she portrays a period of upheaval for her home country, from life under the colonial regime of Rhodesia to the struggle for freedom and the disillusioned everyday life after independence.Her debut novel Nervous Conditions was not only the first novel in English published by a Black woman in Zimbabwe, it has become a modern classic, and in 2018, it figured on BBC's “100 books that changed the world”. That same year, the third book in the trilogy, This Mournable Body, was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker prize.But it was not a given that Dangarembga would end up in this position, and at one point, it seemed she would not be able to publish her first book at all. In her recent essay collection Black and Female, Dangarembga connects the personal and the political in her recount of how she has been forced into a constant uphill battle to be heard, as a Black person and as a woman.At the House of Literature, Dangarembga will meet Ethiopian Maaza Mengiste in conversation. Mengiste is the author of several critically acclaimed novels portraying the history of Ethiopia, and she has named Dangarembga as one of her literary inspirations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A young girl from a poor family fighting to get the education she wants, but which is primarily reserved for her brother. A beautiful and worldly friend who brings her out of her shell. The history of a region told through the childhood of a young girl.This could be the description of Elena Ferrante's Naples Quartet, but in fact it describes the trilogy of Tsitsi Dangarembga, began several decades earlier.In this trilogy, we follow the young girl Tambudzai from her childhood in colonised Rhodesia, through adolescence during the liberation war to the young woman attempting to carve out a life for herself in an independent, but disillusioned, Zimbabwe.How are these novels read today? And why is it that many of the most central authors from the African continent are still unfamiliar to many European readers?Dangarembga has made her mark as a writer for more than 30 years. In 2021, she was the eighth writer to be included in the art project The Future Library in Oslo, and this Spring, she was awarded the Freedom of Expression Prize from the Norwegian Writers Union. Her novels have become modern classics, and a number of writers have been inspired by her nuanced portraits of a young girl, by how she renders girls' and women's fight for equal rights and how she tells the recent story of Zimbabwe through her fiction.One of the writers inspired by Dangarembga's fiction, is Ethiopian Maaza Mengiste. She has also employed the novel to tell the story of a country in her books Beneath the Lion's Gaze and The Shadow King.Marjam Idriss is the author of the novel Jannikeevangeliet («The Gospel of Jannike»), a literary critic and a translator of names such as Audre Lorde and Amanda Gorman. This Spring, she has delved into Dangarembga's body of work.Tonje Vold is a professor at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo. She wrote her thesis about Tsitsi Dangarembga, and her research has focused especially on postcolonial literature and literature from Southern Africa.Moderating the conversation is writer and former artistic director at the House of Literature, Andreas Liebe Delsett. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jamaica Kincaid is one of the greatest authors of feminist and postcolonial literature of our time. In her handful of novels and a collection of short stories, she has portrayed themes such as structural racism, otherness and mother-daughter relationships with soberness and astonishing clarity. She has emerged as a favourite among readers and critics alike, and is increasingly mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.In Lucy, a young woman travels from a Caribbean island to an American metropolis to work as an au pair for a wealthy family. Her new home offers culture shocks in the form of the new climate and city life, but also in the form of visible class differences and racism. Trapped in hierarchy and gender norms, Lucy feels isolated and alone, and must figure out how yet to grow as a person and live a meaningful life.Speaking with Kincaid is journalist and feminist bookshop founder Ida Pallin Bostadløkken. She has devoured Kincaid's works with eagerness and joy, and March 15, 2023, the two met on our stage for a conversation about Lucy, identity and belonging. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“How will you show the destroyed city?”The Trofymchuks live in a small city in Donbas' “Red Zone”, Ukraine, which since Russia's invasion in 2014 has seen frequent shellings and the breakdown of infratructure. They plan to make a film showing their new daily life, and at the dinner table discuss how best to capture the destruction, uncertainty and despair that the war has brought. Just as important is the question of how to show the joys, resilience and community in their neighbourhood and in the family, even in the most dire of circumstances. What is the power of art in a world filled with horrors and absurdities?In the documentary The Earth is Blue as an Orange (2020), filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk follows the Trofymchuks through one year of living on the frontline of the war, documenting their wish to tell the story of their city. This way, she also portrays the many thousands of families in Ukraine trying to keep hold of the brighter spots in an otherwise dark time.Iryna Tsilyk is a Ukrainian critically acclaimed filmmaker, author, poet and translator. In over 15 years she has been writing and producing films about the effects of war on civilians, among other things, especially on women and families. The Earth is Blue as an Orange has won a host of awards for its direction and cinematography, which manages to bring the viewer close to the heart of this extraordinarily resilient family.In conversation with Tsilyk is author Åsne Seierstad. She has written an array of documentary books that show the effects of war and conflict, by getting close to affected individuals, most recently in the critically acclaimed The Afghans. She meets Tsilyk for a conversation on family, Ukraine and the role of art in wartime. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a little girl, Lea Ypi regarded Stalin and Albania's leader Enver Hoxha as dependable father figures, she liked how her teacher Nora har simple answers to everything, and what she wanted most of all, was to be named a pioneer. But when the communist regime falls in 1991, the young Lea suddenly realizes that nothing is truly like she thought. Has her whole life been a lie?In her memoir Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, Ypi depicts an unusual childhood: Before she came of age, she had lived trough a communist regime and its fall, the neoliberal society that succeeded it, as well as a ghastly civil war. With acute awareness, attention to detail and no small amount of wit, Ypi offers her reader a unique insight into Albania's recent history and contention between ideologies and political and economic interests.With her childhood in Albania, Lea Ypi is today a professor of political theory at London School of Economics, where she, among other things, teaches Marxism. Her memoir Free was awarded the Ondaatje prize and named one of the best books of 2022 by both The New Yorker and Fincancial Times.At the House of Literature, Ypi will be joined in conversation by Marianne Marthinsen. Marthinsen is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. Her background is from Norway's Worker's Youth League and the Labour Party, which she represented in parliament between 2005 and 2021. Today, she works for Finance Norway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world in which we live is by and large designed and built for “the ideal man”: The size of cell phones, seat belts in cars, the development of medication – there are countless examples. And most of this we take for granted, that is how used we are, both women and men, to men being the norm, the universal form.If something is to change in the world that is constantly overlooking women, we have to first be aware that this is happening, says writer Caroline Criado Perez. In her book Invisible Women, she lets the numbers speak for her: Data and statistics from all areas of society and a number of countries all show the same picture. “When we see it, we see it. But someone has to point it out to us,” Linn Stalsberg writes in an essay about invisible women in Agenda Magasin. And Criado Perez points it out to us. Where do we go from here? What would change in design and politics if the world started including the experiences of women?Criado Perez is a critically acclaimed writer, journalist, and activist from the UK, where she has campaigned for women to be featured on British banknotes, and for statues of suffragettes to be erected.Linn Stalsberg is a journalist and writer of titles such as Det er nok nå (“Enough now”) and Etter pandemien (“After the pandemic”).This evening, Criado Perez will give an introduction to her project to reveal the male norm governing our everyday lives, before joining Stalsberg in conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is a rare occation when the author of cult books such as American Psycho and The Rules of Attraction releases his first novel in 13 years. For readers of Bret Easton Ellis's earlier books, The Shards has a familiar atmosphere, and he doesn't shy away from explicit descriptions of sex or violence.We are in early 80s LA, and the main character, Bret Ellis, is 17 and a senior at the prestigious private school Buckley. A charming new student in class challenges Bret's attempt to hide his attraction to men.But something darks lurks beneath the glossy surface. The story is told by a now middle aged Bret revisiting the fatal senior year when a serial killer appeared in LA. Leafing through his old yearbook, he notices the five classmates that are missing.Ellis likes to provoke, both in fiction and in public debate. The Shards is no exception. First published in serial format on Ellis's own podcast, the story is passed off as a memoir based on Ellis's own experiences, much like the earlier Lunar Park. As the serial killer moves ever closer to Bret's circle, the book also describes Bret's sexual and literary awakening, making it as much a story of the author's journey into writing.When Ellis visits the House of Literature for the first time, he is joined on stage by Emma Clare Gabrielsen. She has worked for many years as a journalist in Natt & Dag, DN and Norwegian broadcasting NRK, where her documentary on pedophiles earned her nominations for both Norway's premier journalist prize and Prix Europe's "European Journalist of the Year". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The young girl Hirut starts working for a wealthy couple, but is soon brought into their many quarrels, their jealousy and grief over the loss of a child. This is Ethiopia in the 1930s. Things go from bad to worse when Italy, led by Mussolini, invades the country, and Hirut's master is tasked with organizing an opposition army. His wife refuses to wait at home for him, and creates her own force, made up by women. In the capital, emperor Selassie attempts to shut out the dire situation through the sound of opera.In her novel The Shadow King, Maaza Mengiste takes as her starting point a central chapter in the history of Ethiopia , as well as her own family history. She invites us into the realities of the servant Hirut and her madame, but also that of the army leader Kidane, the Italian soldier Ettore and the emperor Haile Selassie. The result is a polyphonic novel that broadens our perceptions of the Ethiopian-Italian war and the lives of human beings in this great history.Mengiste was born in Ethiopia, but her family left the country in the late 70s, during the Ethiopian revolution, which is central in her debut novel Beneath the Lion's Gaze. Both her debut and The Shadow King has received great critical acclaim, and been translated into numerous languages.Sofi Oksanen has, like Mengiste, created fiction from historical events, such as a Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe during the second world war in her novels Purge and Stalin's Cows. Here, too, the experiences of women are central to the stories.Now, both Ethiopia and Ukraine are at war again. Sofi Oksanen will join Maaza Mengiste for a conversation about the role of literature in helping us understand history and the times we live in.The House of Literature's project to promote African literature is supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is an author, screenwriter, and former head of the Zanzibar International Film Festival. In 2003, the Kenyan won the Caine Prize for African Writing, and her 2013 debut novel, Dust, won the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature. In 2015, Owuor visited the House of Literature, a visit that resulted in the Norwegian publication of Dust. The critically acclaimed The Dragonfly Sea followed in 2019. These authors are on Yvonnes reading list:Makena OnjericaOduor OkwiriDennis MugaaIdza LuhumyoTroy OnyangoRemy NgamijeGloria MwanigeKwame NyongoAleya KassamIn this podcastseries the House of Literature in Oslo, Norway invites writers and thinkers to talk about their work, what they read and present their readinglist from the African continent and diaspora. Interviewer in this episode Nosizwe Lise BaqwaEditing and production by the House of LiteratureMusic by Ibou Cissokho The House of Literature's project to promote African literature is supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nadifa Mohamed is the writer of three novels, with the two first, Black Mamba and The Orchard of Lost Souls available in Norwegian translation so far. In 2017, Mohamed participated in The House of Literature's festival on Somali literature, A nation of poets. During the pandemic, she interviewed Arundhati Roy and Édouard Louis for the House of Literature and Linn Ullmann's podcast How to Proceed. In 2013, she appeared on Granta's list of best young British writers. Mohamed's latest novel, The Fortune Men, was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize in 2021. Mohamed teaches creative writing at the Royal Holloway University in London. This is Nadifas reading list.Allah is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma, translation by Frank Wynne, Heinemann. (2006) (originally in French 2000)Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma, translation by Frank Wynne, Heinemann (2003)(originally in French 1998)Home to Harlem by Claude Mckay (1928)Banjo by Claude Mckay (1929)Romance in Marseille by Claude Mckay(2020)(1933)Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude Mckay (2017) (1941)In this podcastseries the House of Literature in Oslo, Norway invites writers and thinkers to talk about their work, what they read and present their readinglist from the African continent and diaspora. Host in this episode Åshild Lappegård LahnEditing and production by the House of LiteratureMusic by Ibou CissokhoThe House of Literature's project to promote African literature is supported by NORAD. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.