The literature festival 2019 is still alive – on YouTube

News

The Norwegian Festival of Literature 2019 is now history, but luckily we have a handful of the program posts from the Lillehammer house of literature and the festival tent at Stortorget on tape.

Videos will be released during the summer and autumn at our YouTube-channel. Posts in English / French will as well be posted below.

In Gunnhild Øyehaug‘s new novel Presens Maskin we experience a dual universe, two different timelines that are created by a mistake in a Swedish poetry collection in the late 1990s. Using simple, laconic form she presents what is essentially a nightmare scenario – a lost child, a lost life, and characters who do not know what has happened. Gunnhild Øyehaug meets John Freeman for conversation about time, space and what is possible in the novel.

Secret, Magical Fantastic: Jessica Townsend‘s debut book Nevermoor quickly became popular with anyone who likes a good fantasy novel. It is the story of a cursed girl, Morrigan Crow, who is transported by a mysterious man named Jupiter Nord to the magical city of Nevermoor. This book is a wonderful adventure that has been compared to, amongst others, Harry Potter. Meet the Australian writer in conversation with Bobbie Peers, the author of the popular series about the cryptographer William Wenton. Moderator: Heidi Sævareid.
An author in politics: When the current French president first came to power, Leïla Slimani was one of his advisers. The French media reported that she was offered the position of Minister of Culture, but refused. Through her writing, the Moroccan author has worked for women’s rights in France and in her home country. Essentially, Slimani represents for many people a new generation of intellectuals in the Francophonic world. How does she balance her political position with her own writing? And how does she look at the ‘official’ France that she represents? These are some of the questions Leïla Slimani addressed in the conversation with author, editor and critic John Freeman.
Johan vs. John: Author Johan Harstad and editor and literary critic John Freeman in conversation.

Novels are populated by characters, and these characters relate to their own worlds and social situations. When we talk and write about books that, in diverse ways, manage to generate identification and compassion, we often use words like depth. If you read the reviews of the two authors Alice Zeniter and Ida Hegazi Høyer, it is this notion that comes up time and again. Both authors construct literary communions that fascinate and stay with the reader. We are therefore looking forward to hearing the two authors together, with Ellen Sofie Lauritzen, in conversation about literature and relationships.