Cecilie Løveid

The broad span of her genre-bending works cover poetry, prose, novels, dramatic texts, opera libretti, children’s books and texts for art performances. Her work can be roughly divided into lyrical prose/novels in the 1970s, dramatic texts in the 1980s and 90s, and poetry from 2000 onwards, though a lyrical aspect is present throughout all of her work.

Løveid debuted with the experimental novel Most in 1972. Though dealing with typical themes of the 1970s, many pertaining to women’s roles, Løveid used a form that drastically set her apart from the then-dominant social realism. Most of her works from this decade, including her breakthrough novel Sea Swell (1979), are similar in themes and form. In the 1980s and 1990s, she wrote a great number of prize-winning plays for the stage, TV, and radio. Frequently performed outside Norway, Løveid is considered one of our most significant living playwrights.

From 2000 onwards, Løveid has primarily written poetry, in which the dramatic form is present—several of her poems are monologues or dialogues. Always pushing genre boundaries, Løveid’s works are often lyrical, sensual, characterized by an associative use of imagery, clever intertextuality, playful imitation and reimagination, as well as poignant social criticism, set forth with an irony alternating between the subtle and the burlesque.

Løveid now lives in Bergen, where she teaches at the Hordaland Academy of Writing, alongside working on her own writing.

Awards

2017: Brageprisen
2016: Heddaprisen
2015: Ibsenprisen
2014: Diktartavla
2014: Kritikarprisen for teater
2014: Sarpsborgprisen
2001: Gyldendalprisen
2000: Amalie Skram-prisen
1999: Ibsenprisen
1990: Doblougprisen
1990: Kulturdepartementets billedbokpris
1983: Prix Italia
1984: Aschehougprisen
1979: Gyldendals legat

Selected titles

Circulating Exhibitions (Vandreutstillinger), poems, 2017
New Rituals (Nye ritualer), poems, 2008
Spilt, poems, 2001
Maria Q, play, 1994
Baroque Frieze (Barock Friise), play, 1993
Double Delight (Dobbel nytelse), play, 1988
Seagull Eaters (Måkespisere), three plays, 1983
Sea Swell (Sug), novel, 1979
Askøy, Always Overcast (Alltid skyer over Askøy), novel 1976
Most, novel, 1972