Bente Pedersen – Nordlige folk

Bente Pedersen from Skibotn has often described herself as «a North Cape cocktail». The popular author is one of Norway's bestsellers with over 200 book titles.

The Northern Cape, with its diverse culture and history, is the setting for the characters in Pedersen's novels. This multicultural area has a past that at times has been anything but rosy. She depicts poverty, hunger, shame and abuse, but also strong women, rebellion and love. Child trafficking, mining, witch trials and prostitution are just some of the themes in Pedersen's series and novels. Although the characters are fictional, the historical context is correct. Pedersen's series of novels are defined as entertainment literature and have sold several million copies in all the Nordic countries and Poland.

Pedersen began her career as a writer in her teens, writing sweet love stories for the magazine Romantikk. As a young student at the Teacher Training College in Tromsø in 1982-83, she wrote a thesis on immigration from Tornedalen in northern Finland to northern Troms in the 17th and 19th centuries. As she immersed herself in local history, the idea of writing books on the subject emerged. Aged just 23, she sold her novel idea to Bladkompaniet, and over the next 10 years she wrote 40 books starring the character Raija.

Raija series

The first book in the series about Raija, «Alien Bird», was published in 20,000 copies. This was ten times that of other authors at the time.

In this series of novels, we meet Finnish Raija from Tornedalen at the beginning of the 18th century. War and hunger mean that her parents see no other option than to «sell» her to the Sami, who take her across the border to Norway. We follow Raija's many experiences, both good and bad, in a multicultural and male-dominated society.

The popularity of the Raija series enabled Pedersen to leave teaching and become a full-time writer in 1989.