Helene Uri

Helene Uri holds a PhD in linguistics and worked for twelve years at the University of Oslo as an Associate Professor before she left to become a full time writer.

She made her literary debut in 1995 with a novel for adolescents, Anna on Friday and published her first novel for adults Deep Red 315 in 2001. Honey Tongues was published to acclaim the following year: Bergens Tidende described it as a book which “tears apart the myth that all children are kind”. Now a full time writer, she has a doctorate in applied linguistics, and continues to write on the subject in newspapers and journals.

The time she spent as an academic at the University of Oslo and other educational institutions provided her with a wealth of material upon which she drew to write Norway’s first campus novel, The Best Among Us published in 2006. This novel stayed on the National bestseller list for 52 weeks and has become a cult novel, sold in 80, 000 copies. A Righteous Man followed in 2009, a modern family drama in the wake of Ingmar Bergman, a story about people who hurt each other because they love each other.

In 2011 she published Bitches, a devilish, wise and witty book about four women taking action and doing something about the kind of the men who use women as foot stools. Clearing Out followed in 2013, her most personal and moving book so far. In 2018 she awarded the prestigious Brage Prize for her critically acclaimed non-fiction book Who Said What?

Foreign Sales: Helene Uri's books have been translated into 14 languages: Bengali, British English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish

Helene Uri High resolution image

Credits: Foto: Julie Pike

Publications