Reiselitteraturfestivalen

– a festival for everyone who loves travelling and reading

Welcome to Norway’s first travel literature festival! There are festivals dedicated to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, crime writing, and literature for children and young adults. But until now, there has been no festival putting travel writing centre stage. We want to change that.

Why a travel literature festival?

Firstly, several of our finest writers have written travel books. Nobel laureates such as Knut Hamsun and Sigrid Undset are among those who have explored the genre. In our own time, writers such as Åsne Seierstad and Erika Fatland have shown that engaging accounts of foreign lands can reach a wide readership.

Secondly, the world is changing rapidly. New mental and physical walls are going up. There is talk of a new world order. That is why we are especially keen to champion books and writers that seek to open up the world and help us make sense of it. At our small but borderless festival, you will meet several writers doing just that. Our programme ranges from encounters with the compelling African travel writers Noo Saro-Wiwa and Tété-Michel Kpomassie to onstage conversations with Norwegian newcomers to the genre.

You will also meet Britain’s Karl Bushby, who has recently gone viral with a story that began long before social media. In 1998, he set off from Chile to walk all the way home to England. Almost three decades later, his journey has taken him across continents, through closed borders, harsh winters and years of delays. Now the adventurer and author is coming to Cosmopolite for an exclusive interview with Christian Kjelstrup.

Alongside the literary programme, there will also be:

• A book oasis with books for sale and author signings
• Food from around the world
• Short musical performances
• A rare reunion with Sigrid Undset and Knut Hamsun
• A DJ and an afterparty

The Travel Literature Festival is a collaboration between Christian Kjelstrup and Cosmopolite Scene. Kjelstrup is Programme Director of the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer and is known for his pop-up bookshops and numerous literary events. For 35 years, Cosmopolite has brought music from every corner of the world to Oslo. Now we are doing the same with literature!

We hope you will make the journey to Cosmopolite on 21 November and join us in celebrating our diverse world – with books as our guide.

PROGRAMME

OPENING. Your host, Christian Kjelstrup, welcomes you.

TRAVEL WRITING AT A CROSSROADS

A conversation with Arne Melberg and Asbjørn Øverås. Melberg is a professor of comparative literature and the author of Å reise og skrive, a book about travel writing as a genre. For many years, Øverås edited Aschehoug’s “SPOR” series of international travel writing. Together, they will discuss the directions travel literature might take at the intersection of non-fiction and fiction.

NORWEGIAN MASTERS IN CONVERSATION

Åsne Seierstad, Erika Fatland and Morten Strøksnes are three of Norway’s leading contemporary authors – and travel writers. In 2025, Seierstad published her major book on Russia, Ufred, which earned her several literary awards. This year sees the publication of Fatland’s Ukraina. En vinterreise and Strøksnes’ Elementærpartikler. Vest for Kola, øst for Varanger. The three now come together for a rare conversation to share their experiences: Why do they write travel books? How do they work on them? And why are all three so strongly drawn to the former Soviet Union?

IN THE SHADOW OF “THE BIG THREE”

What is stirring beneath the surface of Norwegian travel writing? Karen Røise Kielland and Torolf E. Kroglund have each renewed the genre in their own way in recent years. In books such as Reise med ål. En omvei hjem and Eplet. En reise i Edens hager, Kroglund places a single natural and cultural phenomenon at the heart of his journeys. Kielland’s Å gå med Kølle, meanwhile, is a highly experimental travelogue that approaches fiction, supplemented by encyclopaedic entries and drawings by British visual artist Tom Mason.

EXTREME ADVENTURES AND FROZEN WRITERS

A conversation with Jørgen Alnæs and Erling Kagge. Alnæs is the author of I eventyret, about Norwegian polar heroes and other adventurers, including Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen, Thor Heyerdahl – and Erling Kagge. Kagge, an adventurer, publisher and author, has written books about the South Pole and the North Pole, among other subjects. How have Norway’s tales of extraordinary journeys in the polar regions shaped the country’s understanding of itself?

THE WORLD’S MOST EXTREME JOURNEY?

In 1998, Britain’s Karl Bushby left home to embark on an extraordinarily long journey on foot. He walked from Chile in South America to Alaska, crossed the Bering Strait and travelled west through Eurasia – and in October this year, he returned to England after swimming across the English Channel from France. Bushby’s story has gone viral, and this evening he joins us at the Travel Literature Festival to share the story of his extraordinary journey. What does such a journey do to a person? Is there something we can all learn from Karl Bushby?

THREE REFUGEES SHARE THEIR STORIES

Travel writers often seek out dramatic experiences. Others embark unwillingly on journeys they wish were less dramatic. In this session, we meet three Norwegians who came to the country as refugees from different parts of the world. We will hear about immensely challenging journeys over land and water, through deserts and war – and what it is like to arrive in a new homeland. More information to follow.

AFRICAN MASTERS IN CONVERSATION

At the age of sixteen, Tété-Michel Kpomassie left his childhood home in Togo. His destination: Greenland. The journey resulted in the remarkable, award-winning book An African in Greenland. Nigeria’s Noo Saro-Wiwa belongs to a younger generation of African travel writers. Her books, about journeys in her home country and Africans in China, have been hailed as groundbreaking, and travel magazine Condé Nast Traveller named her one of the world’s “30 most influential female travellers of all time”. We close the main programme with an engaging conversation: What characterises travel writing that takes Africa as its starting point?

GUNNAR’S GLOBE

Gunnar Garfors is a travel writer and host of the podcast “Globusrulett”. He is also the first person to have visited all 198 countries in the world – twice! This evening, join us for globe bingo as Gunnar shares stories from his unique travels. There will also be exciting prizes for the winners!

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The Travel Literature Festival has partnered with Fotefar Temareiser:

Fotefar Temareiser organises trips for people with an interest in history, literature and culture. Together with some of Norway’s leading experts and storytellers, who truly know their subjects, we take travellers to the countries and cities where great stories have unfolded.

Our expert guides include Erika Fatland, Terje Tvedt, Harald Stanghelle and Tore Skeie. They make every journey more than just a trip, ensuring that you return home with a fresh understanding and deeper knowledge of what you have experienced.

For us, a destination is never just a place on the map, but a doorway into a story. That makes a partnership with the Travel Literature Festival a natural fit for Fotefar. We share the same conviction: the best journeys begin with curiosity, and a good story can change the way we see the world.

https://www.fotefartemareiser.no/