Paulsen, Per

Per Paulsen was born on October 6, 1928 in Ålesund. With a father who was a priest, he spent his childhood and adolescence moving around Norway before the family settled in Oslo in 1945. Paulsen married Gerd (née Aas) in 1955 and they had two children, Lars Christian and Anneline. He lived in the capital until his death on April 15, 2013.

As a recent graduate with a master's degree in political science, Paulsen joined Gyldendal Norwegian publishing house's large encyclopedia editorial team in 1957, and in 1971 became the editor-in-chief. He moved on to other roles, including personnel manager, until he retired in 1995. Four years earlier, in 1991, he was asked by the then editor of translated fiction, Gordon Hølmebakk, if he would consider translating Joseph und seine Brüder by Thomas Mann from German.

Per Paulsen's translation work mainly comprises classic German works written in the first half of the twentieth century, all published by Gyldendal Norwegian publishing house. He made his debut as a translator with Thomas Mann's four novels about Joseph and his brothers, first published in the original language between 1933 and 1943. The Norwegian translation in four volumes was published between 1993 and 1995. This was followed in 1998 by Jeg skal vitne til siste stund. Diaries from Hitler's Germany 1933-1945 by the Jewish philologist Victor Klemperer. Paulsen then translated two literary classics: The Theory of the Novel by Georg Lukács (orig. 1920) in 2001 and Erich Auerbach's Mimesis:The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (orig. 1946) the following year. Like Klemperer, Auerbach was a Jewish philologist specializing in Latin languages, but unlike Klemperer, Auerbach left Germany in the run-up to the Second World War. He wrote Mimesis in exile in Istanbul. Paulsen then translated Uwe Timm's For example My Brother (2005), which had been published in German two years earlier. Timm's novel is about the author's older brother, who enlisted in the Waffen SS. This was Paulsen's only translation of contemporary German literature. In the same year, Gyldendal published Paulsen's last translation, Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family. Thomas Mann's novel had been translated into Norwegian once before by Margrethe Kjær under the title Huset Buddenbrook in 1929-30 and published in several later editions.

Knut Hoem

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.