Poetic Punk Gala

From nasty and furious, restrained and gloomy to joyful and affirmative – poetry encapsulates all of the extremes in the human condition. Eight poets meet this evening in a lyrical world off the map. The evening’s cartographer is the poet and writer Priya Bains.

On the stage we meet author Ruth Lillegraven, who since her debut in 2005 has published books in a variety of genres for both children and adults. In 2013 she received the Brage Prize for her poetry collection Urd. The Indian poet Meena Kandasamy is also a translator and activist who has written several poems and novels examining important themes such as feminism and linguistic identity. Erlend Nødtvedt from Bergen has since his debut in 2008 written prize-winning novels and collections of poems. He often uses various forms of language in his books, most recently in his poetry collection Olav Nygards seng (Olav Nygard’s bed) in 2023. Poet and author Pivinnguaq Mørch comes from Greenland. In 2019 he was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize for Arpaatit qaqortut (The White Running Shoes, 2015), a collection of short stories and poems. Rasma Haidri is an American poet, writer and teacher living in Norway. She has published non-fiction, essays and poems, most recently the 2023 poetry collection Blue Like Apples. Poet, author and activist Nnimmo Bassey writes prose and poetry, often with environmental protection as a backdrop. His most recent book, Oil Politics: Echoes of Ecological War, was published in 2016. Timimie Märak, slam poet and multi-artist, is one of the founders of the Hásstuheaddji Collective, a Sami-led think tank that brings together performers and artists for dialogue.