Louisiana Literature

More than 40 publishers rejected the debut novel 'Shuggie Bain' by Scottish Douglas Stuart before it won the Booker prize in 2020. The jury behind the prize called it "destined to become a classic". In this intimate interview  Douglas Stuart tells the story behind the extraordinary novel  of a young queer boy in Glasgow in the 1980ies. Douglas Stuart was interviewed in August 2021 on stage at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark by editor of culture Synne Rifbjerg. 

Meet American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, who reflects on the power of literature in general and poetry in particular. Foer argues that art always has a personal point of departure, where the artist confronts the world and rearranges it. Jonathan Safran Foer was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in 2012

Experience award-winning Canadian writer Margaret Atwood in this humorous and vivid conversation about her works of elaborate ‘speculative fiction', and how reality and science fiction are in fact inextricably intertwined.Margaret Atwood was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg at the Louisiana Literature festival at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in August 2014.

Meet Peruvian Nobel Prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa (b.1936), who talks about his literary beginnings and about the inherent power good literature has to make readers aware of another reality: “What we call civilisation is a process that started with this dissatisfaction with the world as it is.Mario Vargas Llosa was interviewed by Christian Lund at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in June 2019.

“I always move on with the strength of my writing.” In this powerful portrait, South Korean writer Han Kang – winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize – reveals the story of how she became an author, and how writing helps her pierce her distrust in human beings.Han Kang was interviewed by Christian Lund in May 2019 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark.

“I think a poem really is a statement of desire.” Meet the legendary American poet, writer – and homosexual icon – Eileen Myles. In this interview, Myles discusses the innate power of poetry and how to address the absence of the female genitalia.Eileen Myles was interviewed by the Danish poet Mette Moestrup in August 2017 in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.

Paul  Auster shares the story of how he became a writer and how he works: “A good day's work is if I have one typed page at the end of the day, two pages is great, three is a miracle.”Paul Auster was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg in Brooklyn, New York, December 2014.

Experience American writer Chris Kraus, author of the iconic feminist novel ‘I Love Dick', in this passionate talk about the apolitical art scene and the challenges of being a woman in our contemporary consumer-focused world.Chris Kraus was interviewed by the feminist activist Emma Holten at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival in August 2017.

70-minute in-depth interview with rock singer and poet Patti Smith, who speaks about her National Book Award winning memoir 'Just Kids' and her life with literature, beginning when she was a child : “I thought we didn't have to grow up. I was heartbroken to find out that we didn't have a choice.” Patti Smith was interviewed by festival director Christian Lund at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in 2012.

In this extensive interview, American Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan takes us through her career as a writer and explains why she considers fiction an invaluable document of our time: “By creating a kind of artefact of the dream-life of our culture, I am preserving it for those who want to understand it from a later point.” Jennifer Egan was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in June 2019.

”The blood that moves through me right now is my great grandfather's blood, but the reason I know him, is because I read Ulysses” says Irish writer Colum McCann in this interview about James Joyce's modernist novel.Colum McCann was interviewed by journalist Synne Rifbjerg backstage at the Louisiana Literature festival in August 2013.

Interview with the late Italian novelist Umberto Eco, author behind the bestselling novel ‘The Name of the Rose'. With great warmth and humour Eco shares how he has always taken pleasure in telling stories, and how he came to write his first novel.Umberto Eco was interviewed in his apartment in Milan by Tonny Vorm in May 2015.

“My writing became ventilation for my frustrations on the art scene.” Meet Norwegian visual artist and writer Matias Faldbakken, who has been described as “one of Scandinavia's most important and most provoking authors.” In this video, Faldbakken talks about how both his novels and his art centre on the antagonistic.Matias Faldbakken was interviewed by Klaus Rothstein in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark in August 2019.

The award-winning American poet CAConrad here shares the moving story of how, following the brutal murder of his boyfriend and the subsequent indifference of the police, writing poetry conceived from rituals became healing: “I believed that I could do a ritual for poems, that could drag me out of that depression.”CAConrad was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in August 2018. During this conversation  CAConrad reads poetry from ‘While Standing in Line for Death' (2017).

“It is important to be able to write about violence with the same intimacy with which I write about love.” Enjoy this cordial interview with Indian Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, who discusses writing about modern India and its many internal borders, in connection with her praised 2017-novel ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness'.Arundhati Roy was interviewed by Danish writer Merete Pryds Helle in May 2018 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.

Enjoy this spellbinding performance by Anne Carson, heralded as one of the most important contemporary poets in the English-speaking world. Together with her collaborator, Robert Currie, Carson performs a staged reading of a text that tells creation stories while adopting the viewpoint of the sky. Anne Carson and Robert Currie performed ‘Lecture on the History of Skywriting' (2016) at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in August 2018.

“The urge to create and the urge to copulate are very close.” In this interview the iconic feminist writer Erica Jong speaks candidly of being fuelled creatively by desire, her experiences as a female writer and what she has come to realize about men.Erica Jong was interviewed by Pejk Malinovski in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival in Denmark, August 2016.

British-Palestinian writer Isabella Hammad has been widely praised for her first novel ‘The Parisian' (2018). In this video, she talks about Palestine in the fading days of the Ottoman Empire, about nostalgia for the past, and how the novel allows “a kind of leap” into the consciousness of someone else.Isabella Hammad was interviewed by Kathrine Tschemerinsky in August 2019 in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark.

“I became a writer once I realised no one liked my stuff.”  Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey's favourite author, Pulitzer Prize-winning Colson Whitehead, on how rejections of his first stab at a novel made him realize that he wanted to pursue writing.Colson Whitehead was interviewed by Tonny Vorm in August 2017 in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.

“Religion should be a personal, private issue. The state should not have any religion. This is the only way to achieve democracy.” Watch the world-renowned Egyptian novelist Alaa al-Aswany speak straightforwardly about contemporary Egypt and why a great societal change is imminent.Alaa al-Aswany was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, in November 2019.

Meet the distinguished writers Taiye Selasi and Colum McCann in this inspiring talk about finding a way to be yourself, a “citizen of elsewhere”, with more than one home and an international identity based on many local experiences.Taiye Selasi and Colum McCann were interviewed live on stage by journalist Kim Skotte in August 2013 at the  Louisiana Literature festival, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.

Meet American poet Ariana Reines, who has been described as one of the crucial voices of her generation. In this video, she talks openly about how extreme familial circumstances “pushed” her into poetry, and how writing lets you enter the deepest levels of experience. Ariana Reines was interviewed  by Christian Lund in October 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

“Anti-black racism is at the core. It is part of what makes America, America,” says the award-winning American poet and writer Claudia Rankine. In this powerful interview, she speaks openly about contemporary America – about Trump, whiteness as “a valued property”, and the inherent anti-black racism.Claudia Rankine was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg in August 2019 at the Louisiana Literature festival in Denmark.

“The best I can do is to try and observe how class, as a very broad social structure, impacts our personal and intimate lives.”To what extent can a writer accommodate an economic and social philosophy to a novel? The Irish literary sensation Sally Rooney, who thinks about the world through “a sort of Marxist framework,” here talks about writing about social class and the novel as a commodity.Sally Rooney was interviewed by Kathrine Tschemerinsky at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, in August 2018.

“There's never a good time to tell your child about slavery, or the Holocaust.”Since she made her astonishing literary debut with ‘White Teeth' in 2000, Zadie Smith has continued writing bestselling novels, making her one of the most prominent figures on the British literary scene. In this extensive, absorbing interview, Smith talks about her 2016-novel ‘Swing Time', her Jamaican heritage and writing: “It's almost like acting. What would it be like if I were a dancer instead of a writer? … What if? … It's a kind of fantasy life.”Zadie Smith was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg in August 2017 at the Louisiana Literature festival in Denmark.