Sigbjørn Skåden (born 8 July 1976) is a Sámi and Norwegian poet and novelist.

Career

Skåden published five books on the

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

publishing house Skániid Girjie; the poetry collections ''Skuovvadeddjiid gonagas'' (2004), ''Skomakernes konge'' (2007) and ''Prekariáhta lávlla'' (2009); and the novel ''Ihpil: Láhppon mánáid bestejeaddji'' (2008). For his debut, he was nominated to the

Nordic Council Literature Prize The Nordic Council Literature Prize is awarded for a work of literature written in one of the languages of the Nordic countries, that meets "high literary and artistic standards". Established in 1962, the prize is awarded every year, and is worth ...

, representing the Sami language area. In 2012 he issued the young adult non-fiction ''Sámit/Samer'' on

Cappelen Damm Cappelen Damm AS is a Norwegian publisher established in 2007. The company is Norway's largest publishing company, publishing fiction and non-fiction works, including academic literature. It resulted from the merger of J.W. Cappelens Forlag, fou ...

. He then issued the novels on Cappelen Damm, ''Våke over dem som sover'' (2014) and ''Fugl'' (2019). The first of these novels was nominated for the

NRK P2 NRK P2 is one of three main, nationwide radio channels produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). Its current format – focusing on news and current affairs, debate, analysis, culture, science, and society – is the result of t ...

Listeners' Prize. ''Fugl'' has been called the first science fiction novel by a Sámi author. Skåden himself has described it as his most Sámi work so far, and it has been interpreted as an allegory of the loss of Sámi culture due to

forced assimilation Forced assimilation is the involuntary cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, during which they are forced by a government to adopt the language, national identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality ...

and Norwegianization of the Sámi people.

Personal life

Hailing from Planterhaug in

Skånland Municipality Skånland () is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in Troms Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1926 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was merged into Tjeldsund Municipality. It was p ...

, he resides in

Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

References

1976 births Living people People from Troms 21st-century Norwegian poets Norwegian novelists Norwegian Sámi writers Norwegian Sámi-language writers {{Norway-poet-stub