The New New Norwegian
In Collaboration with the Literary Journal Vinduet
Across a literary chain of ten short texts, The New New Norwegian asks: which words are missing from the Norwegian language? Which concepts, emotions, and ways of being and imagining remain unnamed? In response to these questions, ten writers are invited to each contribute a short text that introduces a new word to the Norwegian language — whether borrowed, invented, remembered, or reimagined. Conceptualised as a collaboration between Bergen Assembly convenor Adania Shibli and Vinduet editor Priya Bains, the project reflects and embodies this assembly’s focus on poetic knowledge, love as a public force, mujawara/‘neighbouring’, and ‘the We’.
Approaching ‘neighbouring languages’ as a collective, shared space, The New New Norwegian addresses the scope, flexibility, and shortcomings of any dominant language, attending to what it does and does not encompass currently. Each contributor to the project has passed the invitation to another individual of their choosing, thereby contributing to the curation and shape of the project as a whole. It ultimately forms a literary and conceptual chain of words, ideas, and relations that build a picture of what the Norwegian language might become when stretched by care and creativity. The first contribution comes from the novelist and poet Pedro Carmona-Alvarez, followed by Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, Shwan Dler Qaradaki, Ulla Schildt, and Hans Petter Blad. They are published in Vinduet to coincide with the opening day of across, with, nearby. The second and final instalment of texts will be published online on 6 November with texts by Ana Maria Bresciani Arenas, Ana María Ramírez, Ibrahim Mursal, and more.
You can read the texts by visiting:
www.vinduet.no
(Den nye nye norsken),2025.
Hans Petter Blad (b. 1962, Oslo) is a writer and director. He has published ten novels and six books of poetry. He is currently finishing a full-length documentary film (an autobiographical essay film) about dressage and horse riding titled Beau-Geste, as well as a musical based on the life of Yves Saint Laurent. His next novel, If I Die, is forthcoming from Forlaget Oktober (2026).
Pedro Carmona-Alvarez (b. 1972, La Serena) is a poet and writer. He fled Chile with his family to Argentina at the age of ten, and later moved to Norway. He made his debut in 1997 with a poetry collection and has since published several books, most recently Chiquitita (2023), which won the 2023 Riksmål Society Literature Prize. His earlier novels, The Weather Changed, Summer Came and So On (2012) and Rust (2009), also won several prestigious awards. Carmona-Alvarez’s writing explores the challenges faced by immigrants, touching on universal themes such as love and grief.
Shwan Dler Qaradaki (b. 1977, Sulaymaniyah) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans drawing, painting, photography, installation, and video. Through a politically charged visual language, he explores identity, multiculturalism, and how diverse perspectives shape human encounters. He holds master’s degrees from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the Institute of Fine Arts in Sulaimani, and is currently completing a doctoral project in Oslo. His work has been presented at major venues and festivals worldwide, including Human Rights Watch in New York, Rencontres Internationales in Paris, and the
Tromsø International Film Festival. Qaradaki has received numerous awards including the Oslo City Art Award, the Norwegian Arts Council’s Newcomer Award, and the Kistefos Art Award.
Ulla Schildt (b. 1971, Oulu) combines analogue and digital photography with archival material and found objects. In recent years, she has focused particularly on humanity’s need to collect and organise, and, in that way, to ‘master’ the world. Based on the climate crisis and the idea that we are now living in the age of humans, the Anthropocene, Schildt’s works explore a changed understanding of nature and reality. Schildt was educated at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland and Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture in Finland. Schildt has also participated in numerous national and international exhibitions. Schildt lives and works in Oslo.
Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold (b. 1979, Oslo) made her literary debut in 2009 with the novel The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am, which was awarded the prestigious Tarjei Vesaas First Book Prize in 2009, and was also shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2013. Skomsvold writes fiction, poetry, and children’s books. She received the Dobloug Prize for her authorship, and her books have been translated into 25 languages.
Ana María Bresciani Arenas (b. Bogotá, 1978) is a curator and writer working at MUNCH, Oslo. She started her studies in Colombia and completed her master's degree in Venice, Italy. From 2013 onwards, she worked as a curator and senior curator at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. From 2022, she worked at KORO for the New Government Quarter. Since 2024, Bresciani Arenas has been the chair of the board at BEK - Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts.
Ibrahim Mursal (b. 1990, Hamar) is an Oslo-based film director. Born in Norway to Somali parents, he moved with his family to Sudan, where he earned a BA in Oil and Gas Exploration from SUST in 2012. A filmmaking workshop during this period sparked his passion for cinema. After sixteen years in Sudan, he returned to Norway. His films include the award-winning documentary The Art of Sin (2020) and the short film African Family Dinner (2024).
Vinduet is a Norwegian literary journal known for championing and publishing new and often unconventional literature, as well as essays, criticism, and literary reflections. Founded in 1947 by the publisher Harald Grieg and editor Nic. Stang, and now published by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, the journal has played a key role in shaping literary and cultural discourse in Norway. Previously appearing as a quarterly journal, from 2021 Vinduet has existed as a digital-only, open-access publication. Under the editorship of the poet, essayist, and translator Priya Bains since 2024, Vinduet continues to explore new intersections between literature, politics, film, and contemporary culture, with a particular focus on experimental and underrepresented voices.