Hanne Ørstavik

Hanne Ørstavik (born 28 November 1969) is a Norwegian writer. She was born in Tana Municipality in Finnmark county in the far north of Norway. She moved to Oslo at the age of 16. With the publication of the novel Hakk (Cut) in 1994, Ørstavik embarked her writing career. Her literary breakthrough came three years later with the publication of Kjærlighet (Love), which in 2006 was voted the 6th best Norwegian book of the last 25 years in a poll published by Dagbladet. Since then she has written several novels and received a number of literary prizes.

In 2002, she was awarded the Dobloug Prize for her literary works, and in 2004, the Brage Prize for the novel Presten.

Ørstavik’s books have been translated into 15 languages.

Translations in English
In 2014 Peirene Press published the first ever English translation of one of her novels - The Blue Room - as part of their Coming of Age series.

In 2018 Archipelago Books published Kjærlighet (1997) as Love, translated by Martin Aiken. Her first novel to be published in the United States, Love was shortlisted for the National Book Awards in the category Translated Literature and won the 2019 PEN Translation Prize. Love was published in the UK by And Other Stories in 2019.

Martin Aiken also translated Ørstavik's 2004 novel Presten, which was subsequently published by Archipelago Books in 2021 as The Pastor. Preston won the 2004 Brage Prize for adult fiction.

Awards

 * no:Tanums kvinnestipend 1998
 * NRK P2 Listener's Prize 1999, for Like sant som jeg er virkelig
 * Sult Prize 1999
 * no:Havmannprisen 2000, for Tiden det tar
 * Oktober Prize 2000
 * Dobloug Prize 2002
 * Amalie Skram Prize 2002
 * Klassekampen's Literary Award 2004, for Presten
 * Brage Prize 2004, for Presten
 * Aschehoug Prize 2007
 * PEN Translation Prize 2019, for Love (trans. Martin Aitken)