Littpod

I 1990-åra viste NRK den no så legendariske programserien «Samtaler i natten», der Alf van der Hagen intervjua nokre av våre mest sentrale samtidsforfattarar. LittfestBergen tek opp tråden, og gir plass til ein djuptpløyande samtale med Tomas Espedal og Siss Vik om livet og litteraturen ut i døgnets siste time.

Lean back and listen to three authors who all address evil in literature but in their respective languages, from their respective continents, in different genres, and each with their unique voice. Hakan Günday (Turkey), Helon Habila (Nigeria) and Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia) read selected passages from their books in English translation.

What persuades an author to explore the worst things people can do to each other? And how do they go about it? Does fiction or non-fiction get closest to the reality? In their different ways, Hakan Günday (Turkey), Helon Habila (Nigeria) og Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia), have delved into the darkest realms of existence in their books. They meet for a conversation with comparative literature professor Gisle Selnes as moderator.

Frå stygt og rasande til høgstemt og lovprisande – poetar frå sju nasjonar og ein dansar møtest i ei lyrisk verd utanfor kartet. Topograf for kvelden er poeten Henning H. Bergsvåg (Noreg). Kveldens poetar: Asieh Amini (Iran), Linnea Axelsson (Sverige), Kristina Leganger Iversen (Noreg), Camara Lundestad Joof (Noreg), Cecilie Løveid (Noreg), Kei Miller (Jamaica), Erlend O. Nødtvedt (Noreg), Mansur Rajih (Jemen), Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury AKA Tutul (Bangladesh), Gunnar Wærness (Noreg) og dansar Mirte Bogaert (Belgia).

Love, gender identity and liberation – the issues addressed in Rupert Thomson’s latest novel Never anyone but you are not inconsiderable. This book is a fictionalised account of the life of French surrealists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore during the German occupation. Both as life partners and artists, they challenged preconceived ideas of what women, art and love can be. Thomson meets Mona B Riise for a conversation on life, writing and self-representation. In English

«Gjennom heile oppveksten i dei kvite heimane kalla dei oss negerbarna.» I debutboka Eg snakkar om det heile tida spør Camara Lundestad Joof seg sjølv: Korleis var det eigentleg? Blei ho kalla svarting eller nigger? Blei ho slegen av den gamle dama, eller hugsar ho feil? Bør ho slutte å bry seg, slutte å snakke om det? «No er du svært sensitiv, vennen min, vi meiner jo ikkje noko vondt med det.» Etter ei framsyning frå boka, møter Camara Lundestad Joof forskar og forfattar Kristina Leganger Iversen til samtale.

Arriving in the UK at the age of almost 30 meant Xiaolu Guo was stripped of all she knew about reading and writing. To her, working as a writer, it was the equivalent of becoming illiterate. Five years later, Guo published her first book written in English and has since produced a number of critically acclaimed works which have been translated into 28 languages. The latest is a memoir, Once Upon a Time in the East (2018). In this conversation with Peter Nielsen, literary editor of Denmark’s Information, Guo talks about growing up in China, about language and identity – and about how overrated English-language literature really is.

Carsten Jensen er ein av Nordens mest framståande forfattarar. Han har skrive og gitt ut bøker i fleire sjangrar og gitt seg i kast med ei lang rekke tema – men utsynet mot verda og dei store spørsmåla er ein alltid gjeldande fellesnemnar. Bøkene hans er omsett til fleire språk. I denne samtalen med kritikar og journalist Jan H. Landro snakkar Jensen om skrivearbeidet og forfattarskapen.

The term “race” extends beyond biology to embrace class, gender and ideals of beauty, claims American historian Nell Irvin Painter. Her book The History of White People, which became a best-seller in the USA, explores how the race concept became established and asked what leads to a person being defined as “white” or “non-white”. Author Kristina Leganger Iversen has researched the idea of “white” in Scandinavian literature. She interviews Painter about what it actually means to be white. After their conversation, questions will be invited from the audience.

I det mektige dikteposet Ædnan, som i vinter blei løna med den svenske, høgthengande Augustprisen, skriv Linnea Axelsson samefolkets historie. Det er ei historie prega av undertrykking og tvang, men òg av eit forhold til naturen som er ulikt det vi kjenner frå majoritetskulturen i Skandinavia. Korleis har naturen forma den samiske identiteten? Og korleis kan litteraturen formidle naturens verdi? Axelsson møter litteraturvitar og journalist Astrid Hygen Meyer til samtale.

What shapes the history of a country and a family depends on who writes it. Jennifer Makumbi’s critically acclaimed debut novel, Kintu, follows a Ugandan family from 1750 to the present day. With its presentation of the east African nation over almost 300 years, Kintu has been hailed as the “great Ugandan novel” – without giving much space to Idi Amin and the British colonists. Makumbi meets Africa expert and journalist Tomm Kristiansen for a conversation on Uganda, literature and who has power over history.

“It’s hard for an author to compete with reality, which is more absurd than anything you can imagine,” says Russian writer and critic Alisa Ganieva. Unlike most of her fellow authors, she writes consistently about contemporary Russia – particularly the north Caucasus, her own homeland. Her novels do not hesitate to address religious conflict, corruption and authoritarian Russian interpretations of history. Ganieva meets Ingunn Lunde, a professor of Russian, for a conversation on Russian literature, understanding history and how true literary fiction can be. The conversation will be in English

The Listening Post (Lytteposten) is LitFestBergen’s free offer to those who need a break from the festival programme – but don’t want to take one. Find a space, lean back, and listen to some of the best authors in Norway and the world read from their books. In this Listening Post, you can hear Xiaolu Guo (China), Jennifer Makumbi (Uganda) and Dubravka Ugrešić (Croatia).

Norway and Nigeria share a traumatic experience – terrorist attacks directed at children and young people. How can parents go on living after the very worst has happened? This is one of the questions Nigerian Helon Habila asks in his documentary book The Chibok Girls, which investigates what happened when Boko Haram abducted 276 girls in northern Nigeria during 2014. Brit Bildøen’s critically acclaimed novel Sju dagar i august (Seven Days in August) deals with a couple who are still struggling with their sorrow eight years after their daughter was killed in Norway’s Utøya massacre on 22 July 2011. How authors can approach such traumatic incidents is the topic when Habila and Bildøen meet for a conversation moderated by author Aage Storm Borchgrevink.

Etter at verda lét seg begeistre over at kvinner fekk køyre bil, og over andre sosiale reformer i Saudi-Arabia, fekk mange sjokk over journalistdrapet i det saudiske konsulatet i Tyrkia. Kva slags person er kronprins Mohammed bin Salman eigentleg? Ein annan som har arva makta i landet sitt, er Nord-Koreas Kim Jong-un. Kva kjenneteiknar desse to unge, ekstreme leiarane? Og har dei noko til felles med USAs Donald Trump? Tre nye bøker undersøker kva slags leiarar verda no står overfor. Tomm Kristiansen snakkar med Thor Steinhovden, Ina Tin og Morten Traavik om deira bøker om USA, Saudi-Arabia og Nord-Korea.

How we read a book depends in part on our expectations of the text. If it says “novel” on the cover, we will approach it differently than if the description is “essays”. Does the author have a responsibility for clarifying how their text should be read? And what happens when the author chooses to shift between genres in one and the same book? Croatian author Dubravka Ugrešić is known for her genre-crossing works. She talks with Ane Farsethås, who recently published Grenseverdier. Sannhet og litterær metode, with Kari Jegerstedt as moderator.

Romanen Svar på brev frå Helga av Bergsveinn Birgisson består av kjærleiksbrev frå ein gammal mann på Island. Boka, som blei nominert til Nordisk råds litteraturpris, blir sett opp av Hordaland teater i 2019. Skodespelarane Helge Jordal og Ragnhild Gudbrandsen kjem til LittfestBergen for å lese eit utdrag frå boka. Etter lesinga snakkar forfattar Bergsveinn Birgisson og teatersjef Solrun Toft Iversen om adaptasjon frå roman til scene. Samtalen blir leia av Eivind Riise Hauge. Programpost i samarbeid med Hordaland teater.

Kvifor skal det vere positivt for kvinner når nokon seier at «dei har ballar», mens det neppe er godt meint om ein seier at ein gut «spring som ei jente»? Det spørsmålet stiller forfattar og lingvist Helene Uri i den prisløna boka Hvem sa hva?. I dette foredraget fortel ho korleis språket avslører våre fordommar og forventningar til oss sjølve og kvarandre. Det vil bli opna for spørsmål frå salen.

What is exile or how to write can prove to be two sides of the same question – at least in the hybrid novel Fox. In its pages, Croatian author Dubravka Ugrešić draws on literary theory, European and Russian history – and some insights about foxes – in an effort to say something about what literature today could and should be. She talks with Daniel Medin, professor of comparative literature, about the relationship between essayistics and fiction, and what reading has to say for writing. The conversation will be in English.

The Listening Post (Lytteposten) is LitFestBergen’s free offer to those who need a break from the festival programme – but don’t want to take one. Find a space, lean back, and listen to some of the best authors in Norway and the world read from their books. In this Listening Post, you can hear Alisa Ganieva (Russia), Yann Queffélec (France) and Rupert Thomson (UK).