Authors’ Voices in BokPod

What better way to get up close and personal with your favorite writers than to sit down, headphones in place and spoil yourself with an in-depth podcast interview with, say, Roy Jacobsen?

The brand-new BokPod, launched on Wednesday, gives Norwegian book lovers and podcast fans a chance to get inspired with 20 scheduled podcasts, with renowned novelist Jacobsen and 19 other of Norway’s top authors interviewed by well-known Norwegian journalist Hallgeir Opedal of Dagbladet Magasinet.

The podcast series is from book publisher Cappelen Damm and produced together with Monkberry, the production company of Fredrik Skavlan, host of the hit talk show in Sweden and Norway that bears his name. 

Each interview is 45-60 minutes long, and Jacobsen was first out, in a wide-ranging discussion that hit on everything from whaling and lumberjacking, to depression and his youth as a small-time criminal.

The podcasts are in Norwegian and are available for free at bokpod.no, iTunes, Cappelen Damm.no and Dagbladet.no, with a new author released every Wednesday. Future authors include Dag Solstad, Vigdis Hjorth, Ingvar Ambjørnsen and Frode Grytten, among others. 

“The series was actually Fredrik Skavlan’s idea,” says Ingunn Lindborg, head of product development at Cappelen Damm. “He contacted us and asked if we could imagine being partners in a series. His idea was to create in-depth interviews with Norway’s most important writers.”

 Cappelen Damm immediately said yes. “Monkberry is extremely professional, and they brought in probably Norway’s best profile interview journalist, so it wasn’t hard to say yes to being partners,” says Lindborg. “And with Monkberry and Hellgeir Opedal on board, the writers agreed at once as well.”

For Cappelen Damm, BokPod is really another way for it to help get its authors more deserved attention. With cultural news coverage decreasing by mainstream media, and the popularity of the U.S. podcast Serial increasing the public interest in podcasting, doing the series was a natural choice, says Lindborg.

“It’s hard to get coverage of books,” says Lindborg. “Sales channels focus most on bestsellers, which are dominated by crime and entertainment books. Literary authors are less visible to the public than they were a few years ago. So as a major cultural imprint, we want to also publish smaller-scale literature, and we think it’s important to find new ways to make our writers and books more visible. And new digital channels make this possible, from blogs to social media, web TV to podcasting.”

BokPod also receives support from the Fritt Ord Foundation, which supports freedom of expression in Norway.