JORDDØGN SAMTALE: Bonde eller forfattar?

As an agricultural literature festival, we are just as interested in farming as in literature. This evening, we ask about the connection between words and the earth, and what it's like to work with both.

The earth gives us food. Words give us spiritual nourishment. And both Norwegian food production and contemporary Norwegian literature depend on public subsidies. Therefore, both authors and farmers must constantly defend their livelihoods, explaining how their work is important to the community. Is one more important than the other? And what do such questions say about what society values most?

Welcome to a conversation about being a cultivating and writing person.

Ellen Fjestad made her breakthrough in 2012 with the young adult novel Sammen skal vi holde himmelen (Together We Shall Hold Up the Sky), a book that won the Uprisen award that same year. She later followed up with Døgnfluedans (2015) and Den som vokter lyset (2019). At the same time, Fjestad is also a farmer at Arstad Nordre farm in Hedmark, where she produces onions.

Kjell Ola Dahl is one of Norway's most beloved authors, with a long career spanning both fiction and non-fiction. In 2023, he published the book Mitt liv som sauebonde – en familiegård i tre generasjoner (My Life as a Sheep Farmer – A Family Farm in Three Generations), about his own family farm and life as a wild sheep farmer.

Join Fjestad and Dahl in conversation with publisher Eirik Bø from Pelikanen Publishing.