Steen, Thorvald
Thorvald Steen (b 1954) made his literary debut in 1983, and he has subsequently published a wide range of novels, plays, collections of poems, books of short stories, children’s books and essays. He has distinguished himself as one of Norway’s leading internationally-oriented writers. His Norwegian breakthrough came in 1992 with a cycle of poems, ILDEN and shortly afterwards he achieved international recognition with his creative historical novels DON CARLOS (1993), GIOVANNI (1995), CONSTANTINOPLE (1999), THE LITTLE HORSE (2002) and CAMEL CLOUDS (2004). In 2006 Steen wrote the coming-of-age novel THE WEIGHT OF SNOW CRYSTALS, which was followed in 2008 with the freestanding sequel THE LONGEST LEAP.
Steen’s work is translated into more than 20 languages and he has received several literary prizes, both at home and abroad. In 1993 he received Gyldendals legat (The Gyldendal Grant). The Belgian newspaper Le Soir declared Don Carlos one of the five best novels translated into French in 1996. The newspaper Clarin in Argentina chose Steen as “Best new writer” for Don Carlos the same year. In 2001 he received the Norwegian Doubloug Prize for his entire work. The novel Camel Clouds was elected novel of the year by the Turkish newspaper Bir Gun in 2006 and won the Slovak Jan Holly Award in 2007. In 2006 Steen also received the Comenius Medal from the University of Bratislava for his historical novels.
Steen was the chairman of The Norwegian Author's Union (1991-97) and he has been a honorary menber of the union since 1997. He has also been Chairman of the Board in Norla (Norwegian Literature Abroad) since 1997 and a member of the Board of PEN since 2003. In 2004 he received a Govermental Stipend from the Norwegian Minister of Culture.
Click here to read THE SALADIN PROVOCATION, a speech given by Thorvald Steen at the 2004 PEN conference in Tromsø.
Click here to read Thorvald Steen's essay AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF REASON
Praise for Thorvald Steen's books:
"Thorvald Steen constructs like a new Cees Nooteboom, he expresses himself with a harshness as if he were Hemingway himself on a lazy Sunday – and on top of that he spices his tale with a bittersweet humour which often makes the reader smile knowingly to himself."
(Politiken, Denmark)
"Steen writes in an efficient, concrete, filmatic language: dense and resilient, and at the same time full of subtleties, humor and authenticity."
(Dagbladet)
"Thorvald Steen is about to chisel out his own literary genre, at least he risks being placed amongst the really great authors."
(Dagsavisen)
"It is a real pleasure to rediscover Thorvald Steen's elegant and precise language ... Steen has a special gift for seeing the contemporary in historical topics ... That's why Thorvald Steen writes sensible books, and he fills them with wisdom."
(Dag og Tid)
Photographer:
Per Maning
