This article is one in a series of interviews with expats in Stavanger. Its purpose is to share with everyone what your fellow expats are doing and also to help advertise the businesses/services/events that these expats are involved in. If you would like to or know of a business/enterprise to be interviewed, feel free to contact us!
Interview with Ren Powell, veteran expat and author.
Where are you from?
I once told my aunt, out of the blue, and to her great shock, “I was born under a cross”. We were on the freeway at the time and she was relieved when she realized I was pointing out the car window to the cross on top of the hospital in Anaheim, California.
I moved around a lot as a kid – between southern California and Nevada. In school in the 1970s we had to play heads-up 7-up during recess because the smog kept us indoors. I also lived in Kentucky for 6 years, then 6 years in Texas.
How long have you lived in Stavanger? What brought you to Norway?
I’ve been in Rogaland just over 17 years now, and we settled in Stavanger in 2000. My Norwegian husband and I met in Texas. When we began thinking about having children, we compared his childhood memories to mine and we landed pretty quickly in Rogaland.
What do you like best about Stavanger?
The freedom that our children have experienced while growing up: I am a paranoid person by nurture, but when my sons are ten minutes too late returning from the movies I worry about car accidents, not serial killers. In the US I would have been an overly protective parent.
We live in a part of town that is a 15-minute walk to the theater, movies, concerts, restaurants… and a 10-minute walk to the lake, where some mornings I see deer on the path. That balance is one of the things that keeps us here.
What would you tell someone who is about to move to Stavanger?
Keep in mind that people in Stavanger have split personalities: winter and summer. Winter can be cold in every sense of the word, but around mid-April strangers start smiling at each other again when they pass on the cobblestones. When the days are short in winter, take your cod liver oil: sunshine in the form of fish juice.
Do you feel like you have integrated into the culture and lifestyle here in Norway?
No. I think of the ending of the film “The Piano”, where the main character taps her prosthetic finger on the piano key and says it satisfies her to be the town freak. Of course, I am not the town freak, but my accent and my sense of humor, so reliant on puns and cultural references that can’t be translated, will always strike odd notes in social situations. I try to be satisfied with that.
Do you speak Norwegian?
Yes. But I taught high school for more than ten years, so I speak more like a teenager than a college-educated writer, “liksom”. I can’t write Norwegian well, and I’ve found that to be more of a hindrance to my integration. I’m in awe of people like Michael Evans and Isioma Danlel, who have learned to express themselves on paper though a language they learned as an adult.
What do you do/Where do you work? 
When I first got to Norway I did some volunteer translations that led to periodic freelance work for several publishers over the years. When I was pregnant with our second child, I landed a job as a drama teacher at a high school in Sandnes due to a mistranslation of the term “drama”: I thought I would be teaching Modern Drama (ie theater texts) and they thought I had an education in Creative Dramatics. I spent 9 years struggling, growing and learning. I really loved it, but decided I wanted to write more and teach less and I quit in 2004. . . Writing and translating are lonely vocations; I am back as a temporary teacher this year. I am also an adjunct graduate advisor for a distance-learning program in Arizona.
When and Why did you start writing?
Like most people interested in literature, I wrote from the time I was 6 or 7. Writing is how I communicate best. Not only did I make handmade birthday cards for grandpa, etc., I wrote letters to my mother, my friends and camp counselors whenever I had something important to say… I can really only think clearly when I write it all down. If “I think therefore I am”, then I only exist when I am writing.
In college I wrote and produced plays and was lucky enough to study with some really great poets. But to be honest, I don’t think I would have ever become “a writer” were it not for Tor Obrestad. I was translating one of his books and I sheepishly told him I had always wanted to write a book of poems myself. He said, “Why don’t you?” – it wasn’t intended as an encouraging rhetorical question, but as a challenge to all my excuses. I was completely shamed by his question and realized that being a writer had nothing to do with degrees or education, but with – well – writing. I was so honored when he translated my first book into Norwegian later that year.
Where can people find your books and writings?
My latest bilingual books will always be in the local bookshops. Others can be ordered from the publisher or found in the library. I also have a website with links to online work, and soon to my Canadian publisher: RenPowell.com
You have a writing workshop coming up in Sandnes, Can you tell us a bit about that?
I finally admitted to myself that I will not moving back to the US to teach at an MFA program. How to make a life here that I can live with without bitterness? Isn’t that the challenge for all expatriates who have made painful compromises? For those of you with artistic ambitions/impulses I recommend the book How to Create a Life Worth Living, by Carol Lloyd. My workshop project grew out of the exercises in that book.
This fall I will be starting a workshop program in Stavanger and Sandnes called Siste utkast skriveverksted (Final Draft Writing Workshops) . My publisher was on board right away to support the publication of a little literary magazine connected to the workshops. Sølvberget, Stavanger Kommune and Sandnes Kommune have also agreed to support a pilot project.
Now that I have convinced the administrators, the real challenge is to convince the public. I will offer writing workshops for adults over 18, and for youth 16 – 21. I will also offer a very unique magazine workshop free of charge for youth 16 – 21.
Will you be offering this workshop in English? 
My experience teaching in Norwegian high schools has been that students prefer me to teach in both languages. I would love to have some young English-language writers in the magazine workshops! It suits the multicultural themes we will tackle in the magazine.
I will also be offering workshops in Sandnes for adult English-speakers only. The workshops will be at Sandnes Brygge – in a small, cozy room with a harbor view. In order to break-even financially, the workshops require a minimum of 6 participants. I will cap the workshops at 8 so that they will actually be functioning workshops, not lectures. Some people may be writing to record their memories for their relatives, while others may want to learn about how to submit work to journals or publishers. Small groups will make it possible to address each person’s interests.
I hope people will contact me if they have any questions about the workshops. . . and spread the word. Email here.
Anything else you would like to add?
I want to thank you or setting up the new network website! I hope my schedule will allow me to make it to a Monday Coffee soon. . .
Thank you Ren for giving us a glimpse into your life! We are glad to hear from a veteran expat – I think it gives everyone a bit more hope to know it is possible.
Make sure to check out Ren’s site RenPowell.com and you can email her renka (at) online (dot) no.
