Gro Dahle

Norway is a safe country, but still not all children are safe. Too many children live unsafe lives and have a childhood full of dark secrets that they can tell no-one about. Domestic violence, neglect, abuse, incest. These childhoods and these children also deserve to be seen, their stories matter and their childhood experiences are just as relevant and important to make books about as the happy children who live in harmony and in stable, happy families. I want to use my language as a flashlight, trying to light up the dark corners and closed rooms and taboos of childhood. I want to use my stories to tell children that they are not alone, that we know, that we care and want to help, that we see them, that there are doors that can be opened, that they can talk about it, tell their secrets to someone, that there are ways to get out of these dark places and locked rooms. That is my project. It is a political project and a poetical one.

Gro Dahle (born in Oslo in 1962) is a poet, writer, creative writing teacher and a picturebook maker who has published books for 35 years. She has received numerous prizes for her poetry and for her picturebooks, many of which were made in close cooperation with her husband Svein Nyhus and her daughter Kaia Dahle Nyhus – creators of the visual storytelling. The last time Gro was in Stormen Bibliotek was two years ago, then she was here as a dancer doing a solo dance based on one of her collections of poetry.