Reiselitteraturfestivalen

REISELITTERATURFESTIVALEN 21. november 2026

– a festival for everyone who loves travelling and reading

Welcome to Norway’s first travel writing festival! There are festivals dedicated to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, crime writing, and children’s and young adult literature. Until now, however, there has been no festival where travel writing takes centre stage. We want to change that.

Why a travel writing festival?

Firstly, several of Norway’s most distinguished authors have written travel literature. Nobel Prize winners such as Knut Hamsun and Sigrid Undset are among those who explored the genre. In our own time, writers such as Åsne Seierstad and Erika Fatland have shown that engaging accounts from countries around the world can reach a wide readership.

Secondly, the world is changing rapidly. New mental and physical walls are being built. There is talk of a new world order. That is why we are especially keen to champion the books and authors who seek to open up the world and interpret it for us. At our small but boundless festival, you will meet several writers who do precisely that. The programme ranges from in-depth conversations with the acclaimed African travel writers Noo Saro-Wiwa and Tété-Michel Kpomassie to onstage conversations with Norwegian newcomers to the genre. Michael Palin is coming too! For decades, the celebrated Monty Python star has reached a wide Norwegian audience through his travel programmes and books from around the world. Now you can meet him in person.

The literary programme will also feature:

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

The Travel Writing Festival is a collaboration between Christian Kjelstrup and Cosmopolite Scene. Kjelstrup is Programme Director at 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 all corners of the globe 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 for an unforgettable celebration of our diverse world – with books as our guide.

PROGRAMME

OPENING. Host Christian Kjelstrup welcomes the audience.

TRAVEL WRITING AT A CROSSROADS

A conversation with Arne Melberg and Asbjørn Øverås. Melberg is a professor of literary studies and the author of Å reise og skrive, a book about travel writing as a genre. For many years, Øverås was the editor of SPOR, Aschehoug’s series of international travel writing. Together, they will discuss the directions in which travel literature, situated at the intersection of non-fiction and fiction, might develop.

EXTREME ADVENTURES AND FROZEN AUTHORS

A conversation with Jørgen Alnæs and Erling Kagge. Alnæs is the author of I eventyret, a book about Norwegian polar heroes and other adventurers, including Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen, Thor Heyerdahl – and Erling Kagge. Kagge, an explorer, publisher and author, has written several books about the South and North Poles. How have Norway’s adventurous travel narratives from the polar regions shaped the country’s national self-image?

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 about Russia, Ufred, for which she received several literary awards. This year sees the publication of Fatland’s Ukraina. En vinterreise and Strøksnes’s Elementærpartikler. Vest for Kola, øst for Varanger. Now the three come together for a rare conversation in which they share their experiences: Why do they write travel literature? How do they work on their books? And why are all three so strongly drawn to the former Soviet Union?

IN THE SHADOW OF THE BIG THREE

What is stirring in the undergrowth of Norwegian travel writing? Karen Røise Kielland and Torolf E. Kroglund have each revitalised 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 centre of his journeys. Kielland, meanwhile, has written the highly experimental Å gå med Kølle, a work of travel writing that approaches fiction and is supplemented by encyclopaedic entries and her own illustrations.

THREE REFUGEES TELL THEIR STORIES

Travel writers often seek out dramatic situations. Others are involuntarily forced to embark on journeys they wish had been less dramatic. In this session, we meet three Norwegians with refugee backgrounds from different parts of the world. We will hear about exceptionally challenging journeys over land and sea, through deserts and war zones – and what it is like to arrive in a new homeland. More information to follow.

PALIN’S TRAVELS

Michael Palin is known to a wide Norwegian audience as a member of Monty Python – but also for his many travel books and television programmes. While others rest on their laurels, the affable Briton has devoted the past few decades to travelling the globe. He has written books about Venezuela, Iraq, North Korea, the Philippines, the Himalayas and the Sahara. What have all these journeys taught him about the world and the people he has met?

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 and award-winning book An African in Greenland. Noo Saro-Wiwa from Nigeria belongs to a younger generation of African travel writers. Her books about travelling in her home country and the lives of Africans in China have been hailed as groundbreaking, and the travel magazine Condé Nast Traveller named her one of the “30 most influential female travellers of all time”. We bring the main programme to a close with a fascinating conversation: What characterises travel writing rooted in an African perspective?

GUNNAR’S GLOBE

Gunnar Garfors is a travel writer and the host of the podcast Globusrulett. He is also the first person to have visited all 198 countries in the world – twice! Tonight, it is time for a globe show. The audience guesses or chooses a country, and Guru Gunnar answers. Prizes!