English www.litteraturfestival.no Program 2016 Høydepunkter Highlights The Norwegian Festival of Literature 2016 Dear festival visitors, Welcome to six We are also putting the spotlight on the days of festival activities! Some 400 refugee crisis faced by Norway and the rest authors and artists will be taking part of Europe. What is the background of the in more than 200 events! Whether you refugee crisis? What are the refugees fleeing are coming specifically to experience from and what are they coming to? What is Linn Ullmann, Richard Ford, Ariana taking place in the debate climate, what is Reines or Compagnon, or are planning happening to us and what is in fact correct to take things as they come, you can rest and sustainable? The festival has more assured that the Lillehammer festival will questions than answers, and that is why we provide you with good experiences and have invited experts and writers who have pleasant people. You have made a good in-depth expertise on the complex issues. We decision! You are welcome! We hope you are looking forward to interesting discussions will have a wonderful time! and hopefully proposals for solutions. The refugee theme is a leitmotif running through For this year’s festival the USA is the region this year’s programme. Follow The Asylum in focus and there is a reason for this. March 2016, from Trondheim to Lillehammer, Norwegian books are selling like never before take part in the debate about on the other side of the Atlantic, while the radicalisation or hear a presentation of per- awareness of American literature is growing secuted writers from Norwegian Cities of due to increased access, both digitally and in Asylum. terms of language. It is therefore our pleasure to present a series of American authors who Since the last festival, the Lillehammer cinema each in their own fashion exemplify something has been refurbished and expanded to house new within the wealth of literary flora. 5 theatres. The Viksjø facade from 1963 has been restored and wishes the audience In the course of the week you will meet welcome. We will celebrate with a diverse and new stars from both poetry and prose. The interesting film programme. Before we watch poets Ariana Reines, Julian T. Brolaski and the prize-winning documentary The Look of CAConrad are big new names in American Silence, we will meet Joshua Oppenheimer in poetry, a genre which in recent years has conversation with Ivo de Figueiredo through been just as much about staging of the Skype. Another documentary that will be self as literary style. Rebecca Dinerstein, shown is The Book of Conrad. This is a true Alexandra Kleeman and Frank Bill are crime documentary about hate crime in the USA, extremely diverse prose authors, but what and an author’s search for the truth. they have in common is that they write from the inside of a reality available only through The programme for children and young literature. A number of Richard Ford’s short people is varied and comprehensive. And for story collections and novels are available in adult spectators interested in children and Norwegian translation. He is one of the USA’s young people’s literature, there is enough on most prominent authors and we are looking the programme to fill no less than two whole forward to welcoming him back. Are you festival days. But remember: the Norwegian among those who had the chance to experi- Festival of Literature is also Lunch in the park, ence him at the Norwegian Festival of Litera- the Critics Seminar, The Translator’s Hour and ture in 2005? Regardless, this spring you will the Non-fiction Seminar. It is the writers you again have the opportunity. meet on the pedestrian street, the atmosphere at Teltet just before the taps are closed for 2 Høydepunkter the night, the burgers or the wraps you buy Highlights from the food truck on the Stortorget square, Highlights the words flooding out of the loudspeakers, the trees lush with green leaves and all of the people. We have been looking forward to this The opening for a long time. At long last it’s time for the Take part in a sensual and poetic journey festival! where Norway and the world, literature and other forms of artistic expression meet. Welcome! Participants include Laila Bokhari, Aasne Linnestå, Maja S. K. Ratkje, Stian Carstensen Marit Borkenhagen Festival Director and Nama Jafari. Read more on p. 8 Mathias R. Samuelsen Artistic Adviser Anne-Thea L. Haavind Head of Pegasus Annette Seglem Festival Coordinator Closing The festival winds down as Lars Saabye Christensen reads a selection of his own poems in interaction with Mathias Eick on the trumpet and Eyolf Dale on the grand piano. Read more on p. 18 Laila Bokhari Lars Saabye Christensen CAConrad Book of Conrad The poet CAConrad describes his upbringing as follows: “born on 1 January in 1966, son of a single white trash mother who taught him how to shoplift from stores and sell flowers on the side of the road.” Today he is one of the USA’s most important poets and will come to Lillehammer with literature and a film. The film is a documentary about how he returns to Tennessee to solve the murder of his ex-lover. Read more on p.10 3 Høydepunkter Highlights Garden party and closing Alexandra Kleeman at Teltet Come along into the still-light summer evening for a barbecue, wine, readings and music in the garden of the Nansen Academy. Beate Grimsrud, Karolina Ramqvist and Birger Emanu- elsen will give readings. Later you have but to go with the flow as it moves on to the tent on Litter- aturtorget where we will round off the evening with Brødet & Eselet. Read more on p. 11 Banknatta During Banknatta it simmers and boils New American prose both inside and out at Kulturhuset Banken. Rebecca Dinerstein and Alexandra Kleeman are Ferdigsnakka LIVE takes the stage with Rebecca both under the age of 30, but with their respec- Dinerstein, Vigdis Hjorth, Liv Kølzov, Hanna Dahl tive novels they have reached countless readers. and Christelle Ravneberget in collaboration with It is not difficult to see that themes such as Bendik Hovik Kjeldsberg, Nils Martin Larsen and loneliness, dependency and distance describe Emilie The Duke. Dance into the early hours of central moods in the last adult generation who the morning to the music of the marvellous live experienced 11 September. band Broen, followed by dj Vogt and Kleiva. Read more on p. 16 Read more on p. 16 IS – the world’s most Pub hopping dangerous terrorist Saturday evening you can join two Norwegian network hinterland authors of the highest calibre, Levi Cecilie Hellestveit in conversation with the two Henriksen and Christer Mjåset, for pub hopping. IS experts Michael Weiss, American author The outing will go from Haakons Pub, via Paddys and journalist, and Petter Nesser, Norwegian and Nikkers for readings and exuberant stories, terrorism researcher. and finish with a concert by Levi Henriksen and Read more p. 10 The Babylon Badlands at Teltet on Stortorget square. Coeur de Leon in Read more on p. 17 Scandinavia Some books are formative for an entire gener- ation. They stand out as an expression of their time and as a reminder that the world is in movement, or perhaps not. Ariana Reines’ Couer de Leon, named after a cheap camembert brand, is precisely such a book. It is half feminist manifesto and half a blog of woes from the mid 2000s. It is not without reason that Lena Dunham enthusiastically cites the book. Here in Europe it has also become an important work. Meet Reines in conversation with a Norwegian and a Danish poet who have a strong relation- The Look of Silence ship to the poem. Read more on p. 14 Read more on p. 12 4 Høydepunkter Literature salon Highlights About America in with young prose Norwegian: 25 MAY | 6:00-6:50 PM | STORGATA 135 IN A PRIVATE HOME A literature salon featuring three young New American poetry in authors well worth becoming better acquainted Norwegian with: American Rebecca Dinerstein, Norwegian 25 MAY | 12:00-12:50 PM | CAFÉ STIFT Maria Navarro Skavanger and Heidi Sævereid. American poetry has in recent years really NOK 120 taken off and this is something that can also be noticed here in Norway. A changing Knut Ofstad on Bill Frank of the generational guard is underway. 26 MAY | 12:00-12:50 PM | SØNDRE PARK Meet artistic adviser and poet Mathias R. THE TRANSLATOR’S HOUR Samuelsen in conversation with three people It’s called “speaking from the heart”. Frank who have picked up the baton: Anna Kleiva, Bill is an author who writes in the same way: Gunnar Wærness and Leif Høghaug. These without refinement, grammatically dubious, individuals are responsible for translations but on the other hand, almost carnal: violent of three American poets to be featured at the and inelegant – wholly in keeping with the festival, Ariana Reines, CAConrad and Julian people and events he describes. His Norwegian T. Brolaski. NOK 120 translator Knut Ofstad will speak about Frank Bill’s books from the heart and possibly John Williams mini seminar other organs. Organised by: The Norwegian 25 MAY | 6:00-7:00 PM | TELTET Association of Literary Translators | Free of John Williams wrote only three novels, but Charge each of these, despite their historical bent, exemplified the decade in which they were Bukowski written: Stoner from the 1950s, Butchers 27 MAY | 8:00-8:40 PM | CAFÉ STIFT | Crossing from the 1960s and Augustus BANKNATTA from the 1970s.