ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Dates for the next festival: 29 May to 3 June 2012

The Norwegian Festival of Literature is the largest literature festival in the Nordic countries. Its main focus is Norwegian contemporary literature and the interaction between literature and society. In the past few years it has had an increasingly international profile and from the festival in 2007 a particular focus on literature from the Nordic countries.

The festival takes place every year in Lillehammer at the end of May.
The theme for the 2012 festival is MONEY.

The festival contains everything from large scale events to intimate small events: meetings with authors and authorships, readings, interviews, debates, lectures, concerts, art exhibitions, seminars, theatre, film and quiz. This is a festival for an extensive reading audience: kindergarten- and school children, families, book club members, teachers, students, musicians, actors, journalists and politicians.

The festival is also Norway's largest meeting point for authors, translators, literary critics, publishers and librarians. 

Goals and strategies

The Norwegian Festival of Literature has two defined main goals:
- to increase general interest in literature
- to be a central arena for literature in Norway

The strategy to reach these goals are:
- network building
- working together with relevant cultural institutions and organizations locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
- preserving and renewing our volunteering traditions

Administration:

Festival director: Marit Borkenhagen
marit.borkenhagen@litteraturfestival.no

Artistic adviser: Gabriel Moro
gabriel.moro@litteraturfestival.no

Head of Pegasus: Randi Høiholt-Vågsnes
pegasus@litteraturfestival.no

Production coordinator: Annette Seglem
annette.seglem@litteraturfestival.no

The history:

The Norwegian Festival of Literature started as a seminar about Sigrid Undset at Nansenskolen in Lillehammer in 1993. After two years the seminar was turned into a foundation and has since developed into the largest non-commercial meeting point in the literary world of the Nordic countries. In 2011 the festival had over 23.000 visitors over six days and almost 200 events.

The festival is a non-profit organization and is dependent of the volunteering of our functionaries as well as the involvement of institutions such as Maihaugen, Lillehammer College University, Lillehammer Art Museum, Nansenskolen, The Norwegian Publishers Association, The Norwegian Writers Centre and several smaller organizations such as The Sigrid Undset Society.

Festival themes: