Laurie Anderson set to lock next manuscript away for 88 years
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson has agreed to write a manuscript that will remain unpublished until 2114, as the 13th contributor to Norway's Future Library project. The Oslo-based scheme, founded in 2014 by artist Katie Paterson, invites a writer each year to produce a secret text that will not be read by anyone until the project concludes in 88 years' time, when all the works will be published together using paper from trees planted specifically for the purpose.
Anderson joins previous contributors including Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong and Han Kang, with her manuscript to be stored alongside theirs in a dedicated silent room at Oslo's Deichman Bjørvika public library until the anthology's eventual release. It is not yet known what form her contribution will take. Anderson said she was drawn to the project's connection to books, libraries and forests, and hopes to write "something useful about love" for readers a century from now, while the Future Library Trust praised her "singular ability to speak across time."
- Laurie Anderson to write a manuscript sealed until 2114
- She's the 13th author in Oslo's Future Library project
- Joins Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong and Han Kang as contributors
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Laurie Anderson is an American musician, artist and performer known for blending music, storytelling and technology across a career spanning several decades. She has now agreed to take part in the Future Library, a long-running Norwegian art project based in Oslo that asks one writer each year to produce a piece of writing that no one will read until the year 2114.
The project was set up in 2014 by the Scottish artist Katie Paterson. Each year's contribution is kept sealed and unread in a special room at a public library in Oslo, alongside those from previous writers such as Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong and Han Kang. When the full set of manuscripts is finally published in 88 years' time, it will be printed using paper made from a forest of trees planted specifically for that purpose when the project began.
The scheme is intended as a slow, symbolic gesture about time, trust and writing for readers who are not yet born, rather than a conventional publishing venture. Anderson becomes the 13th person invited to contribute, and as with all previous entries, the contents and even the form of her manuscript are being kept secret until the eventual release.