Hans Herbjørnsrud

Who is Hans Herbjørnsrud?

Hans Herbjørnsrud is a Norwegian author of short stories. His works frequently play with the differences between Norwegian languages Bokmål and Nynorsk and the various Norwegian dialects. His stories' characters sometimes playfully mix and invent languages, sometimes become caught up in their linguistic games and start losing their identity.

Herbjørnsrud grew up on a remote farm in Telemark and became a farmer himself. After working as a teacher for some time, he started writing in his early forties and published his first collection of stories, Vitner, in 1979. This collection was recognized as the best literary début of the year with Tarjei Vesaas' debutantpris. Since then, he has published six more collections of stories, which have been well received by critics. Herbjørnsrud has been awarded several prizes for his work, including the prestigious Kritikerprisen in 1997, the Dobloug Prize in 2005 and Aschehougprisen in 2005. He was nominated for The Nordic Council´s Literature Prize in 1998 and 2002. In 1999 Herbjørnsrud was nominated for the European Aristeion Prize. His short stories have been translated into several languages, including German, English, French, Russian and Hindi.