The Norway House Foundation has provided significant support for the Bay Area Book Festival since its inception in 2015. Through this support, we have been able to introduce more than a dozen authors to audiences across the Bay Area, averaging three to four authors per year. These include Geir Gulliksen, Hanne Ørstavik, Ellen Støkken Dahl, Hans Olav Lahlum, Vidar Sundstøl, Gunnhild Øyehaug, and more. Norwegian authors are the core of the Bay Area Book Festival’s international program, in which we showcase what Norway is known for internationally and domestically — stellar literary voices, including world-class Nordic noir writers and also authors on a variety of social issues.

The Festival also creates a warm environment where authors across the globe can connect and share their work. In fact, our international authors often say that conversing with notable US writers and exchanging thoughts with the global literary community is the highlight of the weekend. Norway’s Hanne Ørstavik summarized her take-away poignantly, “So grateful for everything,” and as Thomas Enger said: “It's one of the best book festivals. It will be so fun telling August [his then 4-month-old baby] when he gets a bit older. Sad that we are leaving today ...”

A sampling of the Bay Area Book Festival programs (usually between 4-6 programs per Festival) featuring Norwegian authors:

Be Obsessed, Be Very Obsessed:

Jørgen Brekke, Agnete Friis, Lene Kaaberbøl, Kim Leine, Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, moderated by publisher Steve Wasserman.

Four writers from Scandinavia where nights go on forever and summer light blinds the moon share stories of obsession with a mysterious child, a perfect lullaby, religious conversion, and death itself.

Confronting the Past: Time and Memory in Contemporary Fiction:

Jean-Philippe Blondel, Pedro Carmona-Alvarez, Jonas Karlsson, and Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, moderated by the Center the Art of Translation’s director, Michael Holtmann It’s human nature — the past is always waiting to ambush us even as time hurtles us toward future unknowns. The four international novelists participating in this discussion will describe how they exploit this universal truth while fleshing out their fictional characters, setting up scenes, and plotting their stories.

Roots of Violence:

Åsne Seierstad, Mac McClelland, Lars Fredrik Svendsen, moderated by award-winning author Adam Hochschild Few other species turn on their own members with the ferocity that human beings demonstrate. Our historical path is strewn with warfare, torture, mass murder and the abuse of women and children. Is it inherent our genes? Our souls? In the shapes of our societies? And is there any promise of improvement?

Nordic Noir: The World’s Best Thrillers?:

Hans Olav Lahlum, Thomas Rydahl, Erik Axl Sund, and Vidar Sundstol, moderated by Mal Warwick Perhaps it’s those long, harsh winters or the literary tradition of violent sagas. Whatever the reason Northern Europe has become a hotbed for bone-chilling thrillers. How do they do it? Does their own writing give them nightmares?