The Norwegian Literature Book Club started out as an iniative of Krystalli Glyniadakis in 2024 and is hosted at the charming and hospitable Zatopek Book Café in Kallithea (P. Tsaldari 209, Kallithea 176 76).
Krystalli Glyniadakis (Athens, 1979) is a poet, literary translator, and journalist. She was awarded the National Literature Prize for Poetry in 2018. She’s studied philosophy, philosophy of religion, and political theory at the LSE and King’s College London, and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She holds a PhD in Media & Communications from Bournemouth University on the use of online interactive documentaries within historical narratives, esp. ones dealing with collective trauma. She is a professional translator of Norwegian literature and writes opinion pieces and art reviews for Greek and Norwegian media.
"I’ve been wanting to run a book club focused on Norwegian literature for the longest time", Glyniadakis says.
"We try to add a variety of literary genres and writers, so that the participants can get accounted not just with classic and contemporary Norwegian literature, but, crucially, with the evolution –if that is the right word".
The focus of the book club is on the aspects of Norwegian political and cultural history, and how it has influenced Norwegian literature and writers from the late C19 to today.