Louisiana Literature

Louisiana Literature annually presents literature in interviews, dialogues, readings, performances and musical interpretations. We look forward to welcoming you back from 19–22 August 2027!

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art’s literary festival Louisiana Literature celebrates quality literature from countries all over the world. Through the years the museum has welcomed authors and hosted literary events, just as it has made room for music and architecture.

MORE THAN 15 YEARS ON STAGE...

2026
Elizabeth Strout, Nelio Biedermann, Siri Hustvedt, Leïla Slimani, Kiran Desai, Douglas Stuart, Kae Tempest...

2025
Sally Rooney, Édouard Louis, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Richard Flanagan, Elif Shafak...

Louisiana Literature, 2024. Foto: Klaus Holsting

2024
Adania Shibli, Rachel Cusk, Kim de l’Horizon, Anne Boyer, Anne Carson, Colm Tóibín, Danez Smith...

2023
Haruki Murakami, Joyce Carol Oates, Ali Smith, Tessa Hadley, Ian McEwan, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Wole Soyinka...

2022
Ocean Vuong, Torrey Peters, Deborah Levy, Laurie Anderson, Benjamín Labatut, Bernardine Evaristo, Édouard Louis, Natasha Brown...

2019
Shahrnush Parsipur, László Krasznahorkai, Sjón, Rachel Cusk, Michel Houellebecq, Robert Crumb, Claudia Rankine, Elif Shafak...

2018
Sally Rooney, CAConrad, Hiromi Itō, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Delphine de Vigan, Georgi Gospodinov, Javier Marías, Anne Carson...

2017
Paul Auster, Chris Kraus, Svetlana Alexievich, Eileen Myles, Siri Hustvedt, Péter Nádas, Colson Whitehead, Laurie Anderson...

2016
Julian Barnes, Erica Jong, Hanya Yanagihara, Claudio Magris, Linn Ullmann, Nell Zink, Karl Ove Knaugsård, Olga Tokarczuk...

2015
Richard Ford, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Colm Toíbín, Rachel Kushner, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Vladimir Sorokin, Yan Lianke...

2014
Herta Müller, Teju Cole, Lydia Davis, James McBride, Alaa Al-Aswany, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood...

2013
Per Petterson, Colum McCann, Zadie Smith, Tomomi Adachi, Sofie Oksanen, Erland Loe, Ian McEwan, Jenny Hval...

2012
Patti Smith, Nicole Krauss, Anne Carson, Jeffrey Eugenides, Linn Ullmann, Allan Hollinghurst, Jonathan Safran Foer...

2011
Marilynne Robinson, DBC Pierre, Gary Shteyngart, Junot Díaz, David Grossman, Adonis, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie...

2010
Sofi Oksanen, Günter Grass, Tomas Espedal, Ali Smith, Kevin Vennemann, Sara Stridsberg, Kerstin Ekman, Karl Ove Knausgård...

FESTIVAL PROGRAMMES 2010-2026

For news and updates on the festival we invite you to follow Louisiana Literature on Facebook or Instagram.

C. L. David Foundation and Collection supports Louisiana Literature.

LITERATURE
ON CHANNEL

A four-day tightly packed programme makes it almost impossible to include everything, but luckily the festival has a long 'afterlife' on Louisiana Channel where many of the authors, who have been guests at Louisiana Literature, are featured.

For performances on stage or in-depth talks with Michel Houellebecq, Ben Okri, Zadie Smith, Paul Auster, Margaret Atwood, Patti Smith, Richard Ford, Svetlana Alexievich and many more please follow the link below

Literature on Louisiana Channel

LOUISIANA AND LITERATURE

Literature has always had a place at Louisiana. Through the years the museum has welcomed authors and hosted literary events, just as it has made room for music and architecture. Previously, Nordic poetry days were held and in the 1980s Louisiana gave Eastern European dissident authors a place to speak freely. It was also at Louisiana that Salman Rushdie appeared in public in 1992 – for the first time since the fatwa calling for his assassination was issued.

Thus Louisiana Literature upholds a strong tradition. The event keeps the museum engaged in the world of literature, and at the same time the festival emphasizes great literature and its necessity.

More info here