Kjell Askildsen (30 September 1929 – 23 September 2021) was a Norwegian writer best known for his minimalistic short stories.

Personal life

Askildsen was born in

Mandal A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative c ...

as a son of bailiff and politician Arne Askildsen (1898–1982) and Aasta Håverstad (1898–1978). Before the Second World War his father was the bailiff of Mandal and Halse og Harkmark from 1928, a board member of the Norwegian Lutheran Mission since 1939, and also a member of the school board and city council. During the war and occupation of Norway, his father was imprisoned in Arkivet twice, before escaping to Sweden in 1944. Two older brothers of Kjell Askildsen were held captive in Grini concentration camp. After the war, Askildsen enrolled in the Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany. He was married to a German woman for some time. From August 1951 to March 1968 he was married to Edith Dorothea Mathiessen, and from June 1992 he was married to Gina Giertsen. Askildsen died on 23 September 2021, at the age of 91.

Writing career

His first book, the short story collection ''Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem'' (1953), raised controversy, especially in Mandal, for its sexual content. After that book, Askildsen concentrated mainly on novels. He was awarded the Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment in recognition of his novel, ''Omgivelser'' (1969), which was made into the 1973 movie ''Maria Marusjka'', directed by Oddvar Bull Tuhus and starring Peter Lindgren. From 1982 on, all of Askildsen's published books have been short story collections. It is mainly these books that made him one of the most acclaimed modern writers in Norway. ''Thomas F's siste nedtegnelser til almenheten'' (1983) won him the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. In 2006, a jury appointed by the newspaper ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' voted that collection the best prose book written in Norway during the last 25 year

He has won other awards as well, almost one for each new publication.

Norwegian bibliography

Short story collections

* 1953 - ''Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem'' (''From now on I'll walk you all the way Home'') * 1966 - ''Kulisser'' (''Stage Sets'') * 1982 - ''Ingenting for ingenting'' (''Nothing for Nothing'') * 1983 - ''Thomas F's siste nedtegnelser til almenheten'' (''Thomas F's Last Notes to the Public'') * 1987 - ''En plutselig frigjørende tanke'' (''A Sudden Liberating Thought'') * 1991 - ''Et stort øde landskap'' (''A Great Deserted Landscape'') * 1996 - ''Hundene i Tessaloniki'' (''The Dogs of Thessaloniki'') * 1999 - ''Samlede noveller'' (''Collected Short Stories'') * 2005 - ''Alt som før'' (''Everything As Before'') * 2015 - ''Vennskapets pris'' (''The Cost of Friendship'')

Novels

* 1955 - ''Herr Leonard Leonard'' (''Mister Leonard Leonard'') * 1957 - ''Davids bror'' (''The brother of David'') * 1969 - ''Omgivelser'' (''Scenery'') * 1974 - ''Kjære, kjære Oluf'' (''Dear, dear Oluf'') * 1976 - ''Hverdag'' (''Everyday'')

Awards and prizes (selection)

*2010
Sørlandet Honorary Award
*2009 – Swedish Academy Nordic Prize *2004 – Det Norske Akademis Pris til minne om Thorleif Dahl *1997 – Oktober Prize *1996 –

Brage Prize The Brage Prize (Norwegian: ''Brageprisen'') is a Norwegian literature prize that is awarded annually by the Norwegian Book Prize foundation (''Den norske bokprisen''). The prize recognizes recently published Norwegian literature. The Brage Pr ...

Honorary Award *1995 –

Dobloug Prize The Dobloug Prize (, ) is a literature prize awarded for Swedish and Norwegian fiction. The prize is named after Norwegian businessman and philanthropist Birger Dobloug (1881–1944) pursuant to his bequest. The prize sum is 4 * 150,000 Swedish crow ...

*1991 – Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for ''Et stort øde landskap'' *1991 – Aschehoug Prize *1987 –

Riksmål Society Literature Prize The Riksmål Society Literature Prize (''Riksmålsforbundets litteraturpris'') is awarded annually by the '' Riksmålsforbundet'' for the outstanding publication in riksmål. The prize was awarded until 2002 by the ''Oslo and Bærum Riksmål League ...

*1983 – Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for ''Thomas Fs siste nedtegnelser til allmennheten'' *1969 – Mads Wiel Nygaard's Endowment * Ikaros-prisen

References

Kjell Askildsen
s biography and foreign publishers a
Aschehoug AgencyKjell Askildsen
a
Forlaget Oktober

External links

The Resistance Came to Stay. An interview with Kjell Askildsen
Video by Louisiana Channel {{DEFAULTSORT:Askildsen, Kjell 1929 births 2021 deaths People from Mandal, Norway 20th-century Norwegian novelists Norwegian male short story writers Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature winners Dobloug Prize winners 20th-century Norwegian short story writers 20th-century Norwegian male writers Norwegian expatriates in Sweden