Jan Kjærstad

Jan Kjærstad (born 6 March 1953 in Oslo) is a Norwegian author. Kjærstad is a theology graduate from MF Norwegian School of Theology and the University of Oslo (cand. theol.). He has written a string of novels, short stories and essays and was editor of the literary magazine Vinduet ("The Window"). He has received a number of prizes, the most important being the Nordic Council Literature Prize, which he received for the perspectivist trilogy about the TV personality Jonas Wergeland (The Seducer, The Conqueror and The Discoverer).

With a string of ingenious novels Kjærstad is established as one of the leading and most original writers in contemporary Norwegian literature. His writing in the 1980s was postmodern works that put special emphasis on the importance of the information society. Kjærstad has often been called an encyclopedic writer. His main work, the trilogy about Jonas Wergeland, a fictive biography that tells three different versions about the protagonists life, combines several different genres.

His books have been translated to English, French, German, Danish, Swedish, and Hungarian, among others.

Prizes and recognition

 * 1984 – Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment (a prize awarded to promising authors in memory of Mads Wiel Nygaard by the publisher Aschehoug)
 * 1984 – Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for Homo Falsus
 * 1993 – Aschehougprisen (the primary literature prize awarded annually by the publisher Aschehoug)
 * 1998 – Henrik Steffens-prisen (the Henrik Steffens literature prize is awarded by the university system in Hamburg)
 * 2000 – Doblougprisen (Awarded by the Swedish Academy)
 * 2001 – Nordic Council's Literature Prize for Oppdageren