I Talk about It All the Time

In this biting, lyrical memoir, Camara Lundestad Joof, born in Bod to Norwegian and Gambian parents, shares her experiences as a queer Black Norwegian woman. Joof’s daily encounters 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.

Camara Lundestad Joof is the 2020-24 playwright in residence at Nationaltheatret (The National Theatre) in Oslo, Norway; her works have also been staged in Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Germany. Recent plays include Samtaler med bror and De må føde oss eller pule oss for å elske oss.

Olivia Noble Gunn is an associate professor of Scandinavian studies and the Sverre Arestad Endowed Chair in Norwegian Studies at the University of Washington and the author of Empty Nurseries, Queer Occupants: Reproduction and the Future in Ibsen’s Late Plays.