Holmboe, Lotte

Lotte Holmboe, born Charlotte Birgitte Stuevold-Hansen in Bolsøy outside of Molde in 1910, died in Asker in 1979. Her father, a lawyer and politician, became both Minister for Supply and Trade in Gunnar Knudsen's second government (1917-1920), and the family with their five daughters thus moved to Oslo.

After studies in Oxford and Oslo, a German course in Berlin (1932) and a short period as a teacher in Hamar, Lotte became a passionate and prolific translator of non-fiction and fiction in 1937. Her œuvre consists of major historical, philosophical and biographical works, of british bestselling thrillers and German classics of the past and present.

In 1970 she was awarded the Bastian Prize for her translation of Siegfried Lenz's German Lesson, and in 1976 she received the Norwegian Arts Council's Translator's Prize. The central source for her life and work is her daughter Mari Holmboe Ruge's book Fra Bispehaugen til Hønskollen. Lotte and Haakon Holmboe: Liv og arbeid (2001). Excerpts from letters and diary entries provide valuable insight into how Lotte Holmboe combined the roles of mother of three, resistance wife and professional translator.

Elisabeth Beanca Halvorsen



Huke, Marte

Since 2001, Marte Huke has published five collections of poetry, a novel and a translation volume based on Anna Rydstedt's Jag var ett barn. Her latest publication ist: Du er et levende sted (Poetry, 2019).
She has a background from the Academy of Writing in Bergen and Literary Creation at the University of Gothenburg. Marte Huke also works a lot with text outside the book format, with drama, music and visual art. She lives in Trondheim.



Sandemose, Aksel

Aksel Sandemose (1899-1965) was born at Nykøbing Mors on the island of Mors in Denmark, the son of a blacksmith. His real name was Axel Nielsen, but in 1921 he took the name Aksel Sandemose, after the place where his grandparents lived. After finishing school, Sandemose went to sea, to America, Canada and India. He made his way as a gardener, teacher, clerk, farm worker, journalist.
From 1929 Sandemose lived in Norway and from 1931 he wrote in Norwegian (Bokmål). He is considered the founder of the modern Scandinavian novel. His work is influenced by Joseph Conrad, Jack London and the great psychological theories of the time; he gives deep insights into the psyche of his characters and does not spare radical criticism of social conditions. This and his unpredictable lifestyle earned him the reputation of a literary enfant terrible. Sandemose lived in exile in Sweden from 1941 to 1945. He died in Copenhagen in 1965, but was buried in Oslo.
His most famous novel is En flyktning krysser sitt spor (A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks, 1933).

Sebastian Guggolz

Haugane, Karin

Karin Haugane was born in Haugesund in 1950. She is a cand. phil. with a major in history and made her debut in 1989 with a collection of poetry and prose: Rester av glemsel (Remains of Oblivion). She works also as a translator and has among others rendered Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations into Norwegian.
Her writing consists of twelve collections of poems; prose poems, family elegies, love poems, epic poems, and sonnets, a collection of essays and four translations from English, French and German. Her essays deal with themes such as the neglected child, about writing poems, retelling poetry, and examining poets' form and expression; such as Paul Celan's, Marina Tsvetajeva's, Ingeborg Bachmann's, Gunvor Hofmo's, Inger Christensen's, Robert Frost's, Gennady Aygi's, Arthur Rimbaud's.
Her most recent publication is the collection of essays Språk og erfaring (Language and Experience), Gyldendal Norsk, Oslo 2020.

Farbregd, Turid

Turid Astrid Farbregd, born Auestad in Gjesdal, Norway, in 1941. She took a grade as cand. phil. at Oslo University in 1969 and worked as Norwegian lecturer at Helsinki University 1970-1994. She held a state scholarship under the Norwegian department of culture 1995-2008 with Estonian and Finnish language and culture as working field. Co-editor of Finnish-Norwegian and Estonian-Norwegian dictionaries and of Lærebok i estisk for nordmenn. In 1984 she took the initiative for a Norwegian-Estonian Friendship Society and co-edited the annual publications Norsk-estisk kulturnytt and Estlandsnytt.

She translated from Estonian works by Jaan Kross, Viivi Luik, Mati Unt, Jaan Kaplinski, Tõnu Õnnepalu and Andrus Kivirähk, from Finnish among others Erno Paasilinna, Olli Jalonen, Sofi Oksanen, Juha Itkonen, Katja Kettu, Antti Tuomainen, Pajtim Statovci and Tommi Kinnunen.

She has received several awards: Estonia's Via Estica and the Norwegian Brageprisen 1989, the international Karel Čapek-medal 2002, the Norwegian Kritikerprisen 2013, Finnish state prize for translators 2016, Nordic Translators' prize by Letterstedtska Föreningen 2018.

Qvale, Per

Born in Oslo in 1946, Per Qvale studied Philosophy, History of ideas, and Comparative Literature in Oslo and Bergen, and held a scholarship in Philosophy in Tübingen, Germany 1973-74. Mag.art (PhD), University of Oslo 1981. He has translated about 150 books from German, English and Swedish, both fiction and non-fiction (e.g. Thomas Mann, Elias Canetti, John Fowles, Göran Tunström, Lars Gustafsson, Lars Andersson, Theodor W. Adorno, Peter Englund, John Irving, Sven Delblanc, William Shakespeare). His awards include: Letterstedtska Föreningens Nordisk Översättarpris 2013, The Norwegian Translators’ Association’s Bastian Prize 2008 and The Norwegian Book clubs Prize 2002.
As an editor he published a book on translation theory: Det umuliges kunst. Om å oversette. Oslo 1991 and as a writer a second one: Fra Hieronymus til hypertekst. Oversettelse i teori og praksis. Oslo 1998, English edition From St. Jerome to Hypertext, Manchester 2003.
Per Qvale has also been active as chairman of the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators and is a member of the chair of Det Norske Akademi for Sprog og Litteratur.