Largest Nordic Literature Fest hosting Georgian authors for audience talks
Award-winning authors Archil Kikodze and Zurab Karumidze will meet Norwegian audience in Lillehammer. Photos: Nata Sopromadze/Levan Kherkheulidze.
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The largest literature festival in Nordic countries will feature two Georgian authors as Archil Kikodze and Zurab Karumidze sit down to talk to audiences at the Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer that launches on Tuesday.
The two Georgian guests will be part of the event where over 25,000 visitors and 400 authors and artists are expected to converge for panel discussions, readings, award ceremonies and more.
Kikodze will join his Norwegian counterpart Erlend Loe on Thursday to discuss Georgia’s participation in last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair as the official Guest of Honour.
The two writers met as part of Georgian state literary agencies’ project for the Frankfurt appearance, with Kikodze guiding the Norwegian novelist and screenwriter during the latter’s visit to Georgia.
The annual festival draws over 25,000 visitors to its editions:
In 2019, when it is Norway's turn to be a guest country in Frankfurt, the process is reversed and the Georgian author Archil Kikodze has been invited to Norway to become reacquainted with his colleague again,” Festival organisers said in preview of the meeting.
The two authors will be joined by Georgian National Book Centre Director Medea Metreveli for the talk about significance and outcomes of the 2018 Fair for Georgia.
Kikodze is author of essays and novels published in Georgia over the last 17 years, including The Story of a Bird and a Man, which received the Saba Literary Prize for Short Story Collection of the Year in 2014. He was also awarded the Litera and Iliauni literary prizes for the novel Southern Elephant.
Two days following the talk, author Zurab Karumidze, whose novel Dagny, or a Love Feast was named among top 10 books published in Germany during the month of February last year, will also meet his audience in the Norwegian city.
He will join author Ketil Bjornstad to talk about the work praised as “a brilliant contest for the culture and bohemia of the [turn of the century]” by the Suedwestrundfunk public broadcaster that honoured the novel with the German prize.
Karumidze has published works in Georgia over the last two decades and received awards including the Saba Literary Prize for Critique, Essayistic and Documentary Prose for The Life of Jazz.
The two Georgian writers' participation in the Festival is supported by the Georgian National Book Centre. The full programme of this year’s edition, which will conclude on Sunday, can be found here.