12 years into the century-long literary artwork Future Library, created by Scottish artist Katie Paterson, producer and chair of the Future Library Trust Anne Beate Hovind shares the twelfth chapter of a project that will one day comprise one hundred. 

Rooted in Oslo, Norway, the work grows, quite literally, alongside a forest planted in Nordmarka in 2014, whose trees will become the paper on which these sealed manuscripts will finally be printed in 2114.

Over the years, writers including Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Sjón, Elif Shafak, Han Kang, Karl Ove Knausgård, Ocean Vuong, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Judith Schalansky and Valeria Luiselli have entrusted their unseen texts to the project.

This June, Tommy Orange and Amitav Ghosh will join them, handing over their manuscripts in a ceremony in Oslo. Written for readers who will live a century from now, the Future Library unfolds slowly and tenderly across time. It invites us to consider authorship, trust, and the long arc of cross-generational responsibility, as well as the climate and nature crises shaping our shared future. It asks what it means to write for an audience we will never meet, and how literature might carry care, imagination and solidarity across generations.

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Entry to this event is free but bookings are essential.

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The presentation will also be available online. Please make a booking and we will send you a direct link to the livestream event via email. Or you can join anytime through the Library's YouTube channel. 

About Anne Beate Hovind

Anne Beate Hovind is a Norwegian urban developer, curator and cultural producer with an international profile in art in public space. With more than twenty years’ experience across art, architecture and civic infrastructure, she is known for initiating ambitious, long-term, site-specific projects that connect storytelling, place and community.

She is the producer and curator of Future Library (2014–2114) by Katie Paterson—a hundred-year literary artwork and one of the most internationally acclaimed long-term cultural projects of our time. 

About Kathryn Favelle

A side hustle as an arts writer and editor led Kathryn Favelle to a decades-long career in publishing, public programs and reader services at the National Library of Australia. Kathryn loves talking to writers about their work and has interviewed many, including Geraldine Brooks, Anita Heiss and Liane Moriarty.

This event is delivered in partnership with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Canberra.