Jon Fosse

Jon Fosse (b. 1959) is widely considered one of the most important writers of our time.

Born in Strandebarm in Vestland, western Norway, he currently lives in the national residence of honor The Grotto in Oslo, in Hainburg, Austria, and in Frekhaug, Vestland. Fosse’s remarkably prolific career began in 1983 with his first novel Red, Black, and since then he has published numerous novels, stories, books of poetry, children’s books, and essay collections. He began writing plays in 1993, with Someone Is Going to Come, and since then he has written almost thirty plays, including A Summer’s Day, Dream of Autumn, Death Variations, Sleep, and I Am the Wind.

Since the mid-nineties his plays have had an unparalleled international success, being performed over a thousand times all over the world; his works have been translated into more than fifty languages. Today Fosse is one of the most-performed living playwrights in the world, but he has continued to write novels, stories, and poetry of exceptional quality. In 2015 he received the Nordic Council Literature Prize for his work Trilogy, consisting of Wakefulness, Olav’s Dreams, and Weariness. Fosse’s earlier novels Melancholy I and II, Morning and Evening, and Aliss at the Fire have also received wide critical acclaim.

Fosse has been awarded numerous prizes both in Norway and abroad, and in recent years he has often been mentioned as a frontrunner for the Nobel Prize in Literature.