Meet American poet Ariana Reines, who has been described as one of the crucial voices of her generation. In this video, she talks openly about how extreme familial circumstances “pushed” her into poetry, and how writing lets you enter the deepest levels of experience. 

Ariana Reines was interviewed  by Christian Lund in October 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Meet the distinguished writers Taiye Selasi and Colum McCann in this inspiring talk about finding a way to be yourself, a “citizen of elsewhere”, with more than one home and an international identity based on many local experiences.

Taiye Selasi and Colum McCann were interviewed live on stage by journalist Kim Skotte in August 2013 at the  Louisiana Literature festival, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.

“Anti-black racism is at the core. It is part of what makes America, America,” says the award-winning American poet and writer Claudia Rankine. In this powerful interview, she speaks openly about contemporary America – about Trump, whiteness as “a valued property”, and the inherent anti-black racism.

Claudia Rankine was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg in August 2019 at the Louisiana Literature festival in Denmark.

“The best I can do is to try and observe how class, as a very broad social structure, impacts our personal and intimate lives.”

To what extent can a writer accommodate an economic and social philosophy to a novel? The Irish literary sensation Sally Rooney, who thinks about the world through “a sort of Marxist framework,” here talks about writing about social class and the novel as a commodity.

Sally Rooney was interviewed by Kathrine Tschemerinsky at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, in August 2018.

“There’s never a good time to tell your child about slavery, or the Holocaust.”

Since she made her astonishing literary debut with ‘White Teeth’ in 2000, Zadie Smith has continued writing bestselling novels, making her one of the most prominent figures on the British literary scene. In this extensive, absorbing interview, Smith talks about her 2016-novel ‘Swing Time’, her Jamaican heritage and writing: “It’s almost like acting. What would it be like if I were a dancer instead of a writer? … What if? … It’s a kind of fantasy life.”

Zadie Smith was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg in August 2017 at the Louisiana Literature festival in Denmark.