Tomas Espedal

In contemporary Norwegian fiction Tomas Espedal´s work stands out as uniquely bound up with the author´s personal experiences. Tramp (2006) introduced us to the wanderer Tomas. Against Art (2009) is a novel that focuses on the author; on how a boy approaches art and eventually becomes a writer. It is about the profession of writing, about routines, responsibility and obstacles. Against Nature (2011) is an examination of factory work, love’s labour, the job of writing. And drawn between his home town and the outer world, Espedal wrote Bergeners (2013).

Tomas Espedal (born 1961) made his debut in 1988. A graduate of the University of Bergen, he has published both novels and short prose collections. In 1991 he won an award from the joint Radio P2/Book Club Novelists´ competition for She and I. Founder of the Bergen International Poetry Festival, Espedal’s later works explore the relationship between the novel and other genres such as essays, letters, diaries, autobiographies and travelogue. Espedal’s  Tramp (Or the art of living a wild and poetic life) (2006), Against Art (2009) and Bergeners (2013) have all been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. The author was awarded the Literary Critics’ Prize in 2009.

Quotes from reviews:

«Why is Norwegian literature so exciting these days? The answer may be found in Tomas Espedal's new book about Bergen and books ... like many Norwegian writers he dares to be both naive and intellectual at the same time ... Espedal manages, effortlessly and without pretentions, to be at once very Norwegian and very international.»