Beate Heide

In residence: November - December 2021

Beate Heide (b. 1959) is a Norwegian writer and storyteller working in fiction and non- fiction. Having been on residencies in both Iceland and Greenland, Beate finds inspiration from the places she visits, the nature she encounters and from local stories:

”I have been fascinated by the Arctic from the age of nine when I met Hilmar Nøis, one of the old-time hunters in Spitsbergen, who lived in Villa Fredheim. Between 1909 and 1963 he had 35 hunting winters on Svalbard. He gave his belongings to a museum in Andenes, my hometown. Hearing him talk about the light, the snow and the hunting opened my mind to the cold north.”

Beate has a masters degree in non-fiction writing from the University of South-Eastern Norway and as a professional special educator, she writes articles about understanding children.
Beate also writes fiction for children, her last book Nammalávlla /Navnesangen was published by Iđut and was bought in to all libraries in Norway.  As a Sámi, her books have been published in both Norwegian and Sámi.

“Unfortunately I don’t speak Sámi myself, in the 19th Century the Sami community were oppressed by the refusal to allow them to learn their mother tongue. My contribution to the Sami language now is to see that my stories for children are translated into Sámi.”

Oral storytelling is very close to Beate’s heart, during her residency at Artica Beate hopes to not only share stories but also hear many of the untold tales from Longyearbyen. As an active storyteller in Trondheim and with Midtnorsk Fortellerforum, she is working on many different projects including Penn&Øre and contributes to the Digitalt museum.