LitHouse podcast
LitHouse is the English language podcast from the House of Literature (Litteraturhuset) in Oslo. It presents adapted versions of lectures and conversations featuring international writers and thinkers. The podcast brings literary and intellectual discussions to a global audience, capturing events held at the House of Literature.
Episoder
Contrary-Minded Women: Sylwia Chutnik and Amalie Kasin Lerstang
From her sickbed at the nursing home in Warsaw, Stasia tells the story of her almost ninety-year-long colorful life. Without inhibition, she tells her granddaughter Magda juicy anecdotes about falling in love, horniness, drinking, politics, and her eternal struggle against patriarchal attitudes. Both women stand outside the rest of the family – Stasia because she is too much, Magda because she is
Queer lines: Maia Kobabe and Nora Dåsnes
Few books have faced as much resistance as Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. The American Library Association reports that Gender Queer was the book they received the most requests to remove from libraries in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and it still ranks third for 2025.In itself, Gender Queer is not a controversial project: the book is a graphic memoir based on Kobabe's upbringing in Californi
The Craft of Writing: Elizabeth Strout and Kristina Leganger Iversen
“I knew that I was a writer, but I had to stop writing like other writers. I had to write like myself.”Elizabeth Strout published her first novel at the age of 43, after years of writing, rewriting, and searching for a voice of her own. Today, she is among the most read contemporary writers in American letters, known for her empathetic, profound portraits of people and small-town worlds that stay
Everyday Heroes: Elizabeth Strout and Marie Aubert
Ever since her debut in 1998, American Elizabeth Strout’s literary characters have charmed readers and critics across the world. The headstrong, unpredictable Olive Kitteridge gave Strout the Pulitzer Prize, and was adapted into an award-winning TV series, and the novels about the writer Lucy Barton, who grew up in poor and dysfunctional surroundings on the Illinois countryside, have been embraced
A Homecoming: Douglas Stuart and Janne Stigen Drangsholt
For Cal, it is a defeat to be forced to leave the big city of Edinburgh for his childhood home in the tiny island Isle of Harris. Not only has he failed to get a job despite his expensive education, even worse is having to leave the freedom of the city, where he could live out his attraction to men, something that is unthinkable at home, a place where everybody knows everybody, and his father is l
Dilemmas of Diplomacy. Geert Mak and Espen Barth Eide
In conversation with Tove Gravdal about Roosevelt’s right hand, history’s middlemen and the role of diplomacy today.From Epstein files to the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran: The events of the last few months have highlighted the importance – and shortcomings – of international cooperation and diplomacy.Norway’s foreign secretary, Espen Barth Eide, is one of many who suddenly have to navigate unch
Andrey Kurkov: Ukraine — Memories for the future
The Wergeland Lecture 2026Andrey Kurkov is one of Ukraine’s most central cultural and literary ambassadors. With titles such as Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees, he has gained readers across the world. But when Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, he was no longer able to write fiction. Instead, he has travelled widely to talk about the reality and brutalit
Feminism in Ukrainian: Oksana Zabuzhko and Lotta Elstad
Oksana Zabuzhko is one of the central writers of Ukraine’s post-Soviet generation. In 1996, she caused great controversy with her debut novel, Field Work in Ukrainian Sex, in which she challenged the current view won women’s role in society and in the relationship, where she was expected to be subordinate to the man.The novel has become a work of reference for Eastern European feminism, and with i
The Tsar Dynasty and the Mad Monk: Anthony Beevor and Erika Fatland
Few historians can match the position of British Anthony Beevor. With his 13 historical book son recent European history, he has become one of the most respected and read writers of history. Especially his books about the Second World War, including Stalingrad and The Second World War have become modern classics.In his latest book, Beevor delves into the final days of
A Love Story: Siri Hustvedt and Marte Spurkland
After 43 years together, author Siri Hustvedt loses her husband, the author Paul Auster, to an aggressive form of cancer. Now there is only Siri left, in a time in which memories, smells and words from the time before seep in. Eventually, she starts writing; about Auster's illness and his last days, about their early days together and their all-consuming love, about decades of a shared l
A Country Falling Apart: Siri Hustvedt and Karin Haugen
No, reading novels is not a solution to our political miseries. For that organization, active resistance, and harder rhetoric is required. But we need stories.Author Siri Hustvedt said these words during a lecture at the House of Literature in 2017, in Donald Trump’s first term as president.Hustvedt is one of those writers who turns to literature as well as organized resistance faced wit
A Women's History. Annabelle Hirsch and Susanne Kaluza
In A History of Women in 101 Objects, author Annabelle Hirsch shows us how the things around us aren’t just objects, but testimonies to a common cultural history and set of values. Hirsch shows how something as simple as a hair clip can betray power structures and how kitchen appliances have defined women’s role in society. With a playful tone and a political sharpness, A History of Women is a man
A Secret Family History: Lea Ypi
Albanian Lea Ypi has a talent for combining the personal and the political in history, exploring how we are all shaped by the societies and ideologies surrounding us. In her memoir Free. A Child and a Country at the End of History, she skillfully portrays her own childhood during the socialist regime of Enver Hoxha in the latter half of the 20th century, followed by the state’s collapse and civil
Reading the Vikings. Eleanor Barraclough and Tore Skeie
The history of the Vikings is usually told from the top down, through powerful characters such as chiefs, commanders and royalty, with raids, looting and war at the centre of the narrative. But what about all the others? What was it like to live a normal life as farmer, a merchant, wife or child?This is the central question in a recent book by British Eleanor Barraclough, Embers of the H
My African Reading List: Arinze Ifeakandu
Arinze Ifeakandu is a literary shooting star from Nigeria, with a characteristic, lyrical prose, who has been advocated by authors such as Damon Galgut og Colm Tóibín. God’s Children Are Little Broken Things from 2022 is his literary debut, winning him several literary prizes, including the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize. In addition to the short story collection, Ifeakandu has published several s
When Everything Is Political: Anton Jäger and Torbjørn Røe Isaksen
«Everything» has become political – what you eat, what you wear, where you work, what you dream of. Political engagement permeates society, and movements like Occupy Wall Street, the Yellow Vests, and Fridays for Future emerge and create headlines, before disappearing just as quickly. Yet this politicization does not lead to real social change, only to disillusionment and frustration.This is how B
My African Reading List: Koleka Putuma
South African Koleka Putuma is an author, a playwright, an editor, amentor, and she has become a cult figure in the activist poetry community. In a direct style that pulls no punches, she writes about homophobia and transphobia, gender and racism, while each line pulses with compassion and love. Putuma entered the literary world with a bang in 2017, with her debut collection Collective Amnesia, wh
The Dictator and The Nazi. Philippe Sands and Karin Haugen
After the second world war, many of the biggest war criminals from Nazi Germany flee to South America in the hope of avoiding penalty. One of them is the SS officer Walter Rauff, who settles in Chile, and ends up with a central role in the bloody regime of Augusto Pinochet. How are these two men, their stories and destinies, connected?In his loose trilogy about European history, lawyer Philip
Becoming a writer: Arundhati Roy and Athena Farrokhzad
Due to issues during the recording, the sound quality is somewhat lower than normal.In the recent memoir of Indian star author and activist Arundhati Roy, Mother Mary Comes to Me, we are given the raw and honest story of Roy’s life and childhood with a many faceted mother who was far from easy to live with.Arundhati Roy’s mother Mary took her two small children and left her alcoholic hus
Strategies for Survival: Ocean Vuong and Priya Bains
Poet and writer Ocean Vuong has in just a few years established himself as a leading literary voice of his generation. With his own life as a point of departure – born in Vietnam and grown up in a working-class family in the US – his raw and crystal-clear writing deals with war and trauma, immigration experiences, class, masculinity, sexuality and alienation.In his latest novel, The
My African Reading List: Soukaina Habiballah
Soukaina Habiballah is from Morocco, and the author of four award-winning poetry collections, a short story collection, a novel and a play, Nini Ya Momo. This is Soukaina Habiballah’s reading list:Iman Mersal, Traces of Enayat, (trans. Robin Moger) &nb
Transformation and liberation: Édouard Louis and Erlend Loe
With his seventh novel, Collapse, Édouard Louis has now completed his celebrated family saga about his own upbringing and family.Louis writes ruthlessly and skillfully about subjects such as class distinctions, violence, racism, gender, and political power and powerlessness, and his writing has become a point of reference and inspiration for writers across the world. Through the sev
L'émigrante de classe: Annie Ernaux et Kjerstin Aukrust
En octobre 2022, Annie Ernaux a reçu le prix Nobel de littérature, en tant que première femme française, « pour le courage et l'acuité clinique avec lesquels elle découvre les racines, les étrangetés et les contraintes collectives de la mémoire personnelle ». Avec des livres comme Les Années, Une femme et L'Événement, qui font tomber les barrières entre autobiographie, fiction et sociologie, Ernau
The Break with the West: Omar El Akkad and Yohan Shanmugaratnam
«The moral component of history, the most necessary component, is simply a single questions, asked over and over again: When it mattered, who sided with justice and who sided with power?» One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El AkkadThe lack of a response from the West to Israel’s brutal war in Gaza reveals how the West values certain lives more than others, according to auth
The Storyteller of Sisterhood: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jessika Gedin
When Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie publishes her first novel in 12 years, it is a real event. With award winning and critically acclaimed titles such as Americanah, Half of a Yellow Sun and We Should All Be Feminists, Adichie has attracted a large readership across the world.Both in her novels and in her non-fiction, she explores what it means to be a woman and a femi
My African Reading List: Wole Talabi
Wole Talabi is a Nigerian science fiction author. He is best known for his short stories, most of them collected in the collections Incomplete Solutions and Convergence Problems. His latest novel Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon won the prestigious Nommo award for best novel. Talabi has also edited the anthologies Africanfuturism and Mothersound, both central publications in African fantasy
The many lives of Amna: Youssef Rakha and Teresa Pepe
Youssef Rakha is an award-winning author of both novels and poetry, as well as a journalist and a photographer. I 2009, he was selected by the Hay Festival as one of the best Arabic writers under 40. He is known for The Crocodiles-trilogy, following a group of poets before, during and after the 2011 revolution. The Dissenters is his first novel written in English.The story is t
Monsters and Dystopias: New Arabic Literature
What characterizes the new Arabic literature? Writers involved in the Arab Spring are now imprisoned, exiled or living with the political repression, wars and disillusionment that has marked the region ever since. How are these experiences expressed in literature and the broader culture?Teresa Pepe is professor of Arabic literature at the University of Oslo. Her research has focused on Arabic lite
Liberation and Revolution: Slimani, Rakha and Habiballah
The Arab Spring is when Egyptian Youssef Rakha first starts writing novels. Moroccan Soukaina Habiballah publishes her first poetry collection shortly after, while French Moroccan Leïla Slimani works as a journalist at the time, reporting on the protests unfolding throughout Northern Africa and the Maghreb, before turning to fiction.How have these experiences shaped their writing? All three writer
Diary of a Thief: Abdulrazak Gurnah og Nadifa Mohamed
Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 2021, as the first African-born writer in almost 20 years, for having, in the jury’s reasong, «highlighted the impact of colonialism and the fate of refugees». Now, in his first new novel following the prize, he has turned his focus closer to our own time. The novel has been titled Theft. But what is stolen, and who is the th
Pride and Prejudice: Leïla Slimani and Kjerstin Aukrust
French Moroccan Leïla Slimani‘s own family was the inspiration when she started her critically acclaimed trilogy: The Country of Others, Watch Us Dance and this year’s publication, J'emporterai le feu (“I will carry the fire”).We follow the Belhaj family through three generations, from when Mathilde leaves France to follow her new husband Amine to his home country Morocco
European epics: Jenny Erpenbeck and Mattis Øybø
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
The Empire Strikes Back: GauZ’ and Yohan Shanmugaratnam
«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
The Winding River of Time. Elif Shafak and Marte Spurkland
«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
My African Reding List: Jennifer Makumbi
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 Ben
The History of Panafricanism. Lecture by Hakim Adi
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 t
Abuse and survival: Neige Sinno and Hadia Tajik
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 Brief History of African Dreaming. Lecture by Wole Talabi
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 be
A Network of Autocrats: Anne Applebaum
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 th
A lasting curse: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and Bhakti Shringarpure
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
Hamlet on the West Bank: Isabella Hammad and Priya Bains
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.
The Turbulence of History: Margaret Atwood and Jenny Erpenbeck
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 so
The Literary Prophet: Margaret Atwood
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 exp
Afrotopia: The Future of Africa with Felwine Sarr and Andreas Liebe Delsett
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 g
On Display: Rachel Cusk and Jessika Gedin
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 hon
The Unfree: Persecuted authors and censorship
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 suppose
My African Reading List: Igoni Barrett
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, Afterl
A Tangled Family History: Simon Sebag Montefiore and Shazia Majid
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
Fighting mad to tell their story: Jean Rhys and Jamaica Kincaid writing in the aftermath of Jane Eyre
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 e
My African Reading List: Leila Aboulela
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 r
Lucy's Many Lives: Elizabeth Strout and Kjersti Skomsvold
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;&n
Just Keep Going. Personal lecture by Elizabeth Strout
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-Lars
Gender, Class and Loss: Glenn Bech, Andrew McMillan and Kristofer Folkhammar
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, bet
History In the Footnotes: Leila Aboulela, Maaza Mengiste and Bhakti Shringarpure
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
Hidden in the Details: Adania Shibli and Maaza Mengiste
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 event
Censorship in East and West. Ian Buruma and Helge Jordheim
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 hav
An Ode to Boyhood and Rage. Max Porter and Mattis Øybø
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 sw
A Chorus of Voices from Vietnam. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and Yukiko Duke
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
A Love without Bounds. Aleksandar Hemon and John Freeman
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, Bos
Traitor or war hero? Ian Buruma and Marte Michelet
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 whic
All Animals Are Not Equal. NoViolet Bulawayo and Priya Bains
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
The Writer as Witness. Joyce Carol Oates and Karin Haugen
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
A Quiet Revolution. Abdulrazak Gurnah and Leila Aboulela
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
What Should Art Be? Lecture by Joyce Carol Oates
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 m
My African Reading List: Masande Ntshanga
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
My African Reading List: Maaza Mengiste
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 priz
Forwards Toward the Past. Masande Ntshanga and Julia Wiedlocha
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
Brave New Worlds: Personal lecture by Masande Ntshanga
«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, in
Did Hemingway Write Transgender Literature? Lecture by Torrey Peters
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 exp
Beyond the binary. Torrey Peters and Carline Tromp. Introduction by Christine Jentoft
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 cre
With Your Life in the Balance. Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nonhle Mbuthuma and Bergdis Joelsdottir
«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 a
Who Owns the Land and the Sea? Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, Nonhle Mbuthuma and Silje Ask Lundberg
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 Superwoman Black Feminist. Tsitsi Dangarembga and Maaza Mengiste
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
My Brilliant Friend from Zimbabwe. About Tsitsi Dangarembga's trilogy
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
The Gospel of Lucy. Jamaica Kincaid and Ida Pallin Bostadløkken
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 candi
When the World Collapses. Iryna Tsilyk and Åsne Seierstad
“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 importan
Red Lies. Lea Ypi and Marianne Marthinsen
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: Com
The Universal Man Caroline Criado Perez and Linn Stalsberg
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
Shattered Innocence. Bret Easton Ellis and Emma Clare Gabrielsen
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 pr
The Womanly Face of War. Maaza Mengiste and Sofi Oksanen
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, m
