Autumn 2015 was a real turning point for the Authors in Aarhus project. After the inauguration of Dokk1 last August, we moved to a single permanent venue; and what a venue! The modern design of Store Sal and its special atmosphere, offering a capacity of 260 seats, undoubtedly added to the attractiveness of our events, and at two out of three occasions we had a full house! We were overjoyed, but at the same time slightly overwhelmed, considering that when we first started out— setting the events up on a "we'll go wherever we are welcome" basis— an audience of 40 people was an achievement.

These numbers were a great surprise, and so was the positive feedback we received; confirming to us that there is an interest and an audience for international literature in this country .

Most of all, we were happy for the great talks we hosted; all varied in subject and in geographical origin, but all equal in quality. From Sahar Delijani's moving insight of the 1980's Revolution in Iran, to Jón Kalman Stefánsson's account of life among Iceland's powerful and mind-blowing nature, and finally Dame A. S Byatt's wonderful discussion with friend brain researcher Morten Kringelbach on her lifetime career of writing, we are pleased and proud to have welcomed such talented and interesting fiction writers to Aarhus.

In 2016, we have some more great talks lined up with authors coming from all over the world, to share with us their views and fantastic literature. So keep an eye out in our event calendar for events with internationally acclaimed names from Ireland, Italy, America and Morocco.

We are also pleased that this year we have our very own website up and running, which will be a clearer and more efficient way of sharing our news and keeping you updated on events. (The website is part of the AU network and will be exclusively in English. You can still check out our news in Danish on our library page).

In the meantime, we will continue working on making the project grow, because we believe in the importance of translated literature to have a broader look on world, because we want to offer the people of Aarhus the chance to meet great writers, and above all, because we enjoy it!

Authors in Aarhus wishes everyone a wonderful year, and we hope to see you all soon.