At Home with Literature

Our literature house is located in the heart of Trondheim city in the dynamic area of King-street, just a few feet away from the public library, art museum, Kunsthallen, and Sellanraa book and bar.

It’s known as a centre of high-quality programs and festivals and is also one of the most vibrant and fast-growing institutions in the city.

In the last year since its opening, the literature house has organized and hosted nearly three hundred events including political debates, literary and poetry sessions, cultural and musical festivals.

During the last one month, I have been working with this centre and directly involved with some of its programs. In addition to several events every week, we have also hosted the Trondheim literature festival from October 20-22nd, in collaboration with Trondheim pubic library.

In the inauguration ceremony, NTNU’s very first literature prize was awarded to Sara Sølberg, a young writer, for her novel, SEISMIC SMELL, full of poetic language and the eternal themes of literature - the sea, death, and love.

The three-day program included debates, poetry sessions, and book launches with many well-known authors and poets like Jan Kjærsad, a prominent Norwegian writer and novelist, who was the guest speaker discussing his new work, Berge.

Walid al-Kubaisi, a literary scholar from Iraq, was another speaker in one of the sessions discussing his understanding of Norwegian literature. For Walid, Norwegian national romantic and classical literature is a source of diversity and he concluded. “I understand Wergeland and Ibsen texts better than Norwegians because they have written about a time and a society which has more in common with the community that I come from, and this is the potential of literature: to form identities and promote the culture of inclusion.”

The children’s event with Ståle Grethardsen, reading from his new book for young people, Hva som Helst?, was a highlight of the festival, where one could see many smiling faces demonstrating how literature can bond the generations.

The Literature House understands the needs of the community and so organizes a combination of national and international world-class arrangements.

Daniel Mendelsohn was the guest speaker of the program in October where he talked about his new publication, An Odyssey: a Father, a Son, and Epic; a memoir with a profoundly moving story.

In his book, Daniel talks about his experience of giving post-graduate classes and interestingly that his eighty-one-year-old father, Jay Mendelsohn, is one of the students. The story of father and son gives an impressive and contemporary interpretation of this ancient Greek poem, the Odyssey.

The unique relationship between Bob Dylan and Trondheim is commemorated as his face is decorated onto one of the angel statues at the top of Nidaros Cathedral.

On October 27 this year, Michael Gray, a known American author was in town, in a lively and spontaneous gathering where he presented Dylan's literature, poems and songs and recounted how Dylan had been inspired in particular by the blues and how much of his remarkable, under-attended poetry had been smuggled inside his own highly influential writings.

Professor på cafe is another fascinating and unique arrangement that is held once a month so people can get together and talk about food in relation to literature and how broadly the latter can be used to shape our culture.

As a vibrant institution, the Literature House has an eye on every subject related to literature, from a paperback to an artistic piece, or even a single alphabetic word. In the coming week, among many other events, we are hosting an occasion to celebrate the hundred-year anniversary of Å: a Norwegian alphabetic word.

Additionally, we are working to develop a new project aimed at greater inclusion. The aim is to use uncomplicated literary texts and interactive activities as a method for integration to strengthen the network between refugees and native citizens, as Ursula LeGuin, a famous novelist beautifully said, we need the language of science and poetry to save us from ignorant irresponsibility.

Finally, the Literature house in Trondheim is a buzzing centre of ideas and thoughts where everyone is welcomed to visit, learn, participate and explore Norway and the world through prose, poetry and other types of composition.

Sukhanwar