Ottar Grepstad (born 1 October 1953) is a Norwegian

Nynorsk Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

writer. He was born in

Øyer Municipality Øyer is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tin ...

. In the 1970s he was the leader of the

Young Liberals of Norway Young Liberals of Norway () (NUV) is the youth league of the Norway, Norwegian political party Venstre (Norway), Venstre. Young Liberals was founded on 27 January 1909, with Anders Kirkhusmo as the first leader. The current president is Sondre Han ...

for a period. From 1984 to 1988 he edited the periodical ''

Syn og Segn ''Syn og Segn'' is a Norwegian quarterly cultural and political periodical published in Oslo, Norway. History and profile ''Syn og Segn'' was founded in 1894, and Rasmus Flo and Arne Garborg were the first editors.Det Norske Samlaget Det Norske Samlaget is a Norwegian publishing house founded on 24 March 1868 with the aim to promote and publish books in Landsmål, now known as Nynorsk. ''Det Norske Samlaget'' is now divided into two institutions: a literature organization, '' ...

for many years, and has been manager for

Noregs Mållag Noregs Mållag (literally "Language Organisation of Norway") is the main organisation for Norwegian Nynorsk (New Norwegian), one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from th ...

. In 1999 he became the leader of the Ivar Aasen Centre in

Ørsta Ørsta may refer to: Places * Ørsta (village), an urban village area within Ørsta Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway *Ørsta Municipality is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, ...

. This centre is owned by ''Nynorsk kultursentrum''; which is led by Grepstad as well. From 1 January 2005 he has been a member of the

Arts Council Norway The Arts Council Norway (, often shortened to ''Kulturrådet'') is the official arts council for Norway. Based in Oslo, it is a Norwegian state institution created in as a result of a parliamentary decision in 1964. Arts Council Norway's admini ...

, and from 2006 to 2010 he has been a board member of the

Norwegian Language Council The Language Council of Norway (, ) is the administrative body of the Norwegian state on language issues. It regulates the two written forms of the Norwegian language: Bokmål and Nynorsk. It was established in 2005 and replaced the Norwegian Lan ...

. He left the Arts Council in late 2009. In 1997 he released the book ''Det litterære skattkammer. Sakprosaens teori og retorikk'', which was claimed to be the "world's first theoretical book about

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

". In 1999 he was awarded the Norwegian Language Prize by the

. In 2006 he released ''Viljen til språk. Ei nynorsk kulturhistorie'' and in 2010 ''Avisene som utvida Noreg. Nynorskpressa 1850-2010''. Grepstad resides in

Volda Municipality Volda is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre is the Volda (village), village of Volda. Other v ...

References

1953 births Living people Norwegian magazine editors Norwegian non-fiction writers Nynorsk-language writers People from Øyer People from Volda {{Norway-writer-stub