As part of Kulturnatta 2026, the Norwegian Writers’ Centre – Northern Norway is presenting a programme item on music legend Patti Smith by the author and translator Ingvild Holvik, who has translated Smith’s memoir, *Bread from the Angels* (2025). In this context, Holvik has written a talk about the icon Patti Smith, who turns eighty this year, in which her intimate relationship with literature and writing forms a common thread.
As an artist, Patti Smith has, for more than fifty years, fused rock and poetry into a raw and unique form of expression, capturing the hearts of millions of loyal fans worldwide. In recent years, starting with *Just Kids* (2010), she has published a series of autobiographical books, in which we encounter her both as a poet and a storyteller. Her life story is also a story of the authors and books that are close to her heart and have shaped her as a person and an artist. In her memoir *Bread from the Angels* (2025), her deep relationship with literature and the written word is a recurring theme. ‘It was the word that first seduced me, and to the word I would return,’ she writes, acknowledging that the art of writing has always been the centre of gravity in her artistic ambitions.
Ingvild Holvik takes a closer look at Patti Smith’s all-consuming relationship with literature, as it is revealed in her own books: How, from that first enchanting encounter with the world of books in childhood, she has, throughout a long life, absorbed fiction and nurtured relationships with both living and deceased literary voices, whilst developing her own writing.
Ingvild Holvik is an author and translator. She made her debut in 2010 to rave reviews with the novel *Lykkefeltet*, and has followed this up with a stylistically assured and gripping body of work, including the novels *Premien for alt* (2017) and *Ho er fri* (2020). For her latest novel, *Reiret (working title): roman* (2024), she was awarded the Havmann Prize in 2025. She has also translated Maren Uthaug into Norwegian and was nominated for the Brage Prize for her translation of the Hungarian author Attila Bartis.
The event is supported by Fritt Ord and forms part of the BAUTA programme organised by the Norwegian Writers’ Centre, Northern Norway.
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