Talking North

05 February 2010, Kirkenes, Barents Spektakel 2010

Writers Torgrim Eggen (Norway) and Mikhail Shishkin (Russia).
Moderator — Konstantin Bogdanov.

Torgrim Eggen is one of the leading contemporary novelists in Norway. His first five novels, published from 1992 to 2003, though independent works, have a loose thematic cycle. Eggen is characterized as «a chronicler of post-modernism», a sharp observer of the changing cultural patterns and conflicts of modern society. In 2010 his seventh novel ”Iron” is published. Eggen is an eager writer, journalist and radio commentator. His interests are diverse: film, music, food, wine, literature, design, architecture, technology, religious and political issues. Eggen is also author of factual prose, for example, about New York (”Manhatten”, 2007) and cultural history of cigar-smoking in Cuba (“Duften av Havana”, 2002).
www.torgrimeggen.no

Mikhail Shishkin is one of the most prominent names in contemporary Russian literature. The author of widely acclaimed novels, Shishkin is admired as a refined stylist whose fiction engages Russian and European literary traditions and forges an equally expansive vision for the future of literature.
Born in 1961 in Moscow, Shishkin worked as a school teacher and journalist. His writing debut in 1993, the short story Calligraphy Lesson, was named the Best Debut of the Year by the literary journal Znamya. In 1995 he moved to Switzerland, where he worked as a Russian and German translator. His impressions of the country inspired him to write Russian Switzerland, a nonfiction literary-historical guide, and Montreux-Missolunghi-Astapowo: Tracing Byron and Tolstoy, a literary walk from Lake of Geneva to the Bern Alps.
He wrote two novels, which earned him the three most prestigious Russian literary awards. The Taking of Izmail won the Russian Booker Prize and Venus Hair (Maiden’s Hair) was awarded the National Bestseller Prize and the Bolshaya Kniga (“Big Book”) prize.
His works have been translated into 11 languages and have received numerous national and international awards, including the 2007 Grinzane Cavour Award and the French literary prize for the best foreign book of the year, Le prix du meilleur livre étranger 2005.

Oil For Art – performance by Amund Sjølie Sveen
Amund Sjølie Sveen gives an introduction to the Oil for Art program. This is a new Norwegian governmental program designed to answer the vital challenges of modern Norwegian life. To quote Prime-Minister Jens Stoltenberg: «One of the problems we face today, is that though we now experience considerable material wealth, we are obviously having problems filling life with meaningful content. In other words: We have plenty to live of, but not very much to live for.»
When the people of Iraq were starving, the UN initiated the Oil for Food program, to help Iraq exchange oil for food. The people of Norway has plenty of oil and plenty of food, but needs something to be excited about. We need the Oil for Art program.
Performance lecture in English.