Kjell Askildsen

Askildsen was born in Mandal as a son of bailiff and politician Arne Askildsen (1898–1982) and Aasta Håverstad (1898–1978).{{cite encyclopedia|title=Kjell Askildsen|encyclopedia=Norsk biografisk leksikon|first=Øystein|last=Rottem|author-link=Øystein Rottem|editor=Helle, Knut|editor-link=Knut Helle|publisher=Kunnskapsforlaget|location=Oslo|url=http://www.snl.no/.nbl_biografi/Kjell_Askildsen/utdypning|language=no|access-date=27 September 2011}} Before the Second World War his father was the bailiff of Mandal and Halse og Harkmark from 1928, a board member of the Norwegian Lutheran Mission since 1939, and also a member of the school board and city council.{{stortingetbio|ARAK|Arne Askildsen}} During the war and occupation of Norway, his father was imprisoned in Arkivet twice, before escaping{{cite book|editor=Ottosen, Kristian|editor-link=Kristian Ottosen|title=Nordmenn i fangenskap 1940–1945|edition=2nd|year=2004|publisher=Universitetsforlaget|location=Oslo|language=no|isbn=82-15-00288-9|page=104}} to Sweden in 1944. Two older brothers of Kjell Askildsen were held captive in Grini concentration camp.{{cite news|title=Bokbrenningen i Mandal|last=Bjørnkjær|first=Kristen|date=24 September 2011|work=Information/Klassekampen|pages=44–45|language=no}}

After the war, Askildsen enrolled in the Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany. He was married to a German woman for some time. From August 1951 to March 1968 he was married to Edith Dorothea Mathiessen, and from June 1992 he was married to Gina Giertsen.

Askildsen died on 23 September 2021, at the age of 91.{{cite news |url=https://www.nrk.no/norge/kjell-askildsen-_91_-er-dod-1.15664621

|title=Kjell Askildsen er død |website=nrk.no |first1=Mariann |last1=Strand |first2=Emily Louisa Millan |last2=Eide |first3=Elisabet |last3=Grøndahl |first4=Thorvald |last4=Aschim |language=no |date=24 September 2021 |access-date=24 September 2021 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.vg.no/rampelys/bok/i/JxlkP8/kjell-askildsen-er-doed | title=Kjell Askildsen er død }}

His first book, the short story collection Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem (1953), raised controversy, especially in Mandal, for its sexual content.{{Cite web|url=http://www.literaturfestival.com/archive/participants/authors/2009/kjell-askildsen?set_language=en|title = Kjell Askildsen — internationales literaturfestival berlin}} After that book, Askildsen concentrated mainly on novels. He was awarded the Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment in recognition of his novel, Omgivelser (1969), which was made into the 1973 movie Maria Marusjka, directed by Oddvar Bull Tuhus and starring Peter Lindgren.

From 1982 on, all of Askildsen's published books have been short story collections. It is mainly these books that made him one of the most acclaimed modern writers in Norway. Thomas F's siste nedtegnelser til almenheten (1983) won him the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. In 2006, a jury appointed by the newspaper Dagbladet voted that collection the best prose book written in Norway during the last 25 years [http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2006/08/05/473082.html]. He has won other awards as well, almost one for each new publication.

• 1953 - Heretter følger jeg deg helt hjem (From now on I'll walk you all the way Home)
• 1966 - Kulisser (Stage Sets)
• 1982 - Ingenting for ingenting (Nothing for Nothing)
• 1983 - Thomas F's siste nedtegnelser til almenheten (Thomas F's Last Notes to the Public)
• 1987 - En plutselig frigjørende tanke (A Sudden Liberating Thought)
• 1991 - Et stort øde landskap (A Great Deserted Landscape)
• 1996 - Hundene i Tessaloniki (The Dogs of Thessaloniki)
• 1999 - Samlede noveller (Collected Short Stories)
• 2005 - Alt som før (Everything As Before)
• 2015 - Vennskapets pris (The Cost of Friendship)

• 1955 - Herr Leonard Leonard (Mister Leonard Leonard)
• 1957 - Davids bror (The brother of David)
• 1969 - Omgivelser (Scenery)
• 1974 - Kjære, kjære Oluf (Dear, dear Oluf)
• 1976 - Hverdag (Everyday)

• 2010 - [http://www.sorlandetslitteraturpris.no/ Sørlandet Honorary Award]
• 2009 – Swedish Academy Nordic Prize
• 2004 – Det Norske Akademis Pris til minne om Thorleif Dahl
• 1997 – Oktober Prize
• 1996 – Brage Prize Honorary Award
• 1995 – Dobloug Prize
• 1991 – Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for Et stort øde landskap
• 1991 – Aschehoug Prize
• 1987 – Riksmål Society Literature Prize
• 1983 – Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for Thomas Fs siste nedtegnelser til allmennheten
• 1969 – Mads Wiel Nygaard's Endowment
• Ikaros-prisen

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.aschehougagency.no/authors/oktober/askildsen_kjell Kjell Askildsen]'s biography and foreign publishers at [http://www.aschehougagency.no Aschehoug Agency]
• [http://oktober.no/nor/forfattere/norske/askildsen_kjell Kjell Askildsen] at [http://oktober.no/nor/in_english Forlaget Oktober] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307155838/http://oktober.no/nor/in_english |date=7 March 2012 }}

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpbN7M8N6aI&t=99s The Resistance Came to Stay. An interview with Kjell Askildsen] Video by Louisiana Channel

{{Dobloug Prize winners}}

{{Swedish Academy Nordic Prize winners}}

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Category:1929 births

Category:2021 deaths

Category:People from Mandal, Norway

Category:20th-century Norwegian novelists

Category:Norwegian male short story writers

Category:Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature winners

Category:Dobloug Prize winners

Category:20th-century Norwegian short story writers

Category:20th-century Norwegian male writers

Category:Norwegian expatriates in Sweden