On this event taking place in our in-house Cinema, Teju Cole will talk about his new essay collection "Known and Strange Things" (2018) with Kunstnernes Hus director Anne Hilde Neset.

Teju Cole is a writer and photographer. He is the photography critic of the New York Times Magazine. He was born in the US in 1975 to Nigerian parents, was raised in Nigeria and currently lives in Brooklyn. "Known and Strange Things" (in Norwegian: "Kjent og Fremmed", Gyldendal, 2018) offers a selection of his essays on art, travels and politics. In this book, Cole takes us on a journey in James Baldwin's footsteps in Switzerland and on a long cab ride on the English countryside. He writes about a dinner party in V.S. Naipaul’s home and about Tomas Tranström's poetry. He shows how photographers have gone forward to create true images of black people despite the fact that photo technology favors light skin. We'll be joining him in Harlem on the night when the United States elects its first black president. Whether the topics are big or small, Teju Cole sees the world from an inquiring, intelligent and thoughtful angle, thereby opening up for new insights and thoughts, for himself and for the reader.

Cole debuted with the novel "Every Day is for the Thief" in 2007 and got his big breakthrough with the novel "Open City" from 2012. For this he received several literary prizes, including the Hemingway foundation / PEN award for best novel. He serves as a board member for several periodicals and arts organizations, and has participated in many literary and photography juries.

In collaboration with Litteraturhuset and Gyldendal.

Photo credit: Teju Cole/Tim Knox