Grethe Fatima Syéd (born 1 January 1968) is a Norwegian

literary scholar A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

, translator and author. She has translated fiction from English, obtained a doctorate with a dissertation on

Olav Duun Olav Duun (21 November 1876 – 13 September 1939) was a writer of Norwegian fiction. He is generally recognized to be one of the more outstanding writers in Norwegian literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twenty-fo ...

, and published books about the writer Torborg Nedreaas. Her fiction debut was ''Eventyr for voksne'' (Fairytales for adults, 2020). In 2019, she was awarded the ''

Klassekampen (Lit. translation: ''"The Class Struggle"'') is a Norwegian daily newspaper in print and online. Its tagline is "The daily newspaper of the Left". The paper's net circulation was 33,265 in 2022, and it has around 111,000 daily readers on paper ...

'' Neshornet culture prize for her work.

Early life and education

Syéd was born in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

to a Norwegian mother and a father from India. She received a cand. philol. degree in Nordic literature from the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

in 2001, with the main thesis ''"And so we don't know what it is!" Dialogicity in Olav Duun's Contemporary''. She received her PhD on Olav Duun's texts at the University of Bergen in 2012. The doctoral thesis was titled ''Merciless care. Love, suicide, art and transcendence in Olav Duun's fictional world''.

Career

For many years, Syéd was associated with the University of Bergen, She later worked as a freelance writer and literary agent. In the period 2018–2023, she was editor for Vidarforlaget's Duun publications. Syéd has translated the works of

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...

, and others into Norwegian. She is chairman of the board of the Torborg Nedreaas company and a board member of the Olav Duun ring and the Tekstalliansen.

Personal life

She was married to the writer

Jon Fosse Jon Olav Fosse (; born 29 September 1959) is a Norwegian author, translator, and playwright. In 2023, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable." Fosse's work spans over se ...

from 1993 to 2009, during which time she went by the name Grethe Fosse.

Awards

In 2019, the Norwegian newspaper ''

'' awarded her their Neshornet cultural prize for her work on Olav Duun.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syed, Grethe Fatima 1968 births Living people Norwegian people of Indian descent University of Bergen alumni Writers from Bergen 21st-century Norwegian writers 21st-century Norwegian women writers 21st-century Norwegian novelists English–Norwegian translators