Read and discuss literature with our Nordic Book Club Online! On February 11, we’ll be discussing Norwegian performance artist and playwright Camara Lundestad Joof’s I Talk about It All the Time, a biting and lyrical memoir about her experiences as a queer Black Norwegian woman.

What does it mean to be Norwegian? Born in Bodø to Norwegian and Gambian parents, Joof experiences microaggressions that belie the myth of a colorblind contemporary Scandinavia. She wrestles with the fickle palimpsest of memory, demanding communion with her readers even as she recognizes her own exhaustion in the face of constantly being asked to educate others. “I regularly decide to quit talking to white people about racism,” writes Joof. Such discussions often feel unproductive, the occasional spark of hope coming at enormous personal cost. But not talking about it is impossible, a betrayal of self. The book is a self-examination as well as societal indictment. It is an open challenge to readers, to hear her as she talks about it, all the time.

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