Alan Hollinghurst and Édouard Louis have long read each other’s books with great interest. While Louis has written brutally honest depictions of growing up gay in a homophobic family and environment, Hollinghurst’s fiction explores gay culture and experience through the decades, including the AIDS crisis and gay life prior to decriminalization in the UK.

While Norway marks 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalized this year, LGBT rights are being curbed around the world, and this year’s Oslo Pride ended in a fatal shooting. In such a climate, is the gay writer forced into an activist role by virtue of their being gay? Is there a pressure to represent when writing from a minority perspective?

In this conversation, Hollinghurst and Louis will talk about their relationship to each other’s books, about the role of gay literature and the plight of the gay writer.

Leading the conversation is Knut Olav Åmås, director of the Free Word Foundation.

The original moderator Kristofer Folkhammar unfortunately had to cancel.