Hans Herbjørnsrud
was born in Telemark in 1938, and made his debut in 1979 with Witnesses and is today a celebrated author of short stories. Herbjørnsrud has been nominated twice for the Nordic Council Prize for Literature, and has been awarded the Dobloug Prize, the Aschehoug Prize and the Critics’ Prize.
Foreign Sales:
His work has been published in France (Editions Circé) and Germany (Luchterhand) and his short stories have been represented in anthologies in the UK, Russia, Hungary, the Czech R., Slovenia, Croatia.
Bibliography:
The Wells (Brønnene), 2006
We Know so Much (Vi vet så mye), 2001
The Blind Door (Blinddøra), 1997
Ex and Zed (Eks og Sett), 1992
He (Han), 1987
The Water Carrier (Vannbæreren), 1984)
Witnesses (Vitner), 1979
Prizes:
2005: The Aschehoug Prize
2005: The Dobloug Prize
2002: Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize
1999: Nominated for the European Aristeion Prize
1998: Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize
1997: The Critics' Prize
1987: The Gyldendal Fund's Prize
1980: Tarjei Vesaas' Debut Prize
About Hans Herbjørnsrud's stories:
"Hans Herbjørnsrud: The Scandinavian James Joyce."
Rheinischer Merkur
"After meeting Herbjørnsrud's stories, I feel like I have read at least half a shelf meter. That's how full of meaning his stories are."
Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
"Herbjørnsrud, now that's something else, goddamn it. Imagine if anybody wrote stories like that in Denmark"
Renowned Danish critic Lars Bukdahl
"Again and again, Hans Herbjørnsrud makes the landscape of Heddal to appear fresh and new. With imagination, humour and rich imagery he magically turns his home farm into a site where fantastic literature is acted out. The complex stories in THE WELLS are at least as good as his previous works, and the writing is as savoury as ever."
Dagbladet
"Again THE WELLS demonstrate the author's masterful short story craft"
Dagsavisen
"Herbjørnsrud can't be praised too muchfor his brilliant use of language, which is at times so innovative, surprising and equivocal that the reader has to sample words and expressions several times over"
Aftenposten
"Herbjørnsrud has the ability to make reader the dizzy. Dizzy because he races forward into spirals of thought. He whirls the reader around, and up. From the soil and the scent of rotting wood, to shooting stars and galaxies - in one single leap."
Bergens Tidende
"Almost 30 years after his debut, Hans Herbjørnsrud stands out as this country's most lively and extraordinary short story writer"
Adresseavisen
"This is world literature, in brilliant Norwegian prose. It's fantastical. And fantastically well done."
Agderposten
"He published his first short stories in 1979, and is now awarded the Aschehoug Prize, because he since then has given us a body of work which leans towards world literature, but which is at the same time without equal.
This year's recipient of the Aschehoug Prize 'doesn't speak with one tongue, he changes style and tone from one text to another - and he masters each of them more or less equally well.' This is how the critic Øystein Rottem has described today's winner.
The author doesn't speak in tongues either, even if some of his texts flow together into a new language. He switches between Danish, New Norwegian, Standard Norwegian and the dialect of his hometown within one and the same story. In the same way he juggles with genres: fairy tales, sagas, science fiction and realism, always within the confines of the short story, until we start gasping for air, because what we are reading is so magical, a magic realism so down-to-earth, so close. He explores and challenges the short story as a literary composition. He has sharpened and renewed the genre.
This year's winner's writing shakes the reader, we tremble, we listen. Is that the author's claws scratching, or is it just a branch? It's an art to balance a text as metafiction, where the story which is being told tells the story, and the one which went before and the one which comes after - all at the same time.
This is an art the author masters, without stumbling between the various fictional levels in career which leans towards world literature, but which is at the same time without equal.
Hans Herbjørnsrud made his debut as a writer at the age of 40, at the same time as he took over his father's farm in Heddal. His stories have their roots in the family farm, in the author's own childhood, in his home village and in the Telemark nature. But he has used his roots as wings, to borrow his own phrase."
From the Aschehoug Prize jury statement
