Pressemeddelelse -
Karl Ove Knausgård to receive the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award 2022 at a ceremony next Fall
Photo: Sølve Sundsbø for D2
The Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård will be the seventh overall and the first Nordic recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award as he will receive the 2022 edition of the prestigious award. The literature award that has been postponed due to COVID-19, has previously been awarded to Paulo Coelho, J.K. Rowling, Isabel Allende, Sir Salman Rushdie, Haruki Murakami and most recently Dame A.S. Byatt in 2018. The award will be presented this Fall at a ceremony in Odense, Denmark.
In 2020, Norwegian Karl Ove Knausgård (b. 1968), the author behind the monumental autobiographical novel series My Struggle (2009-11), was announced as the upcoming recipient of the prestigious “2022 Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award”. Due to COVID-19, the award committee decided to postpone the award ceremony until October 30th, 2022, where the author will take part in the official ceremony at Odense town hall at 2 pm.
The motivation of the award committee is as follows:
“Karl Ove Knausgård is the recipient of the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award because of his intense renewal of the field between novel and autobiography, an area Hans Christian Andersen also explored to the fullest extent, and because he, like Andersen before him, has placed Scandinavia on the literary world map.”
The first Nordic recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award
Knausgård will be the first Nordic author to receive the award. Previously, the renowned literature award has been presented to Paulo Coelho, J.K. Rowling, Isabel Allende, Sir Salman Rushdie, Haruki Murakami and most recently Dame A.S. Byatt.
Karl Ove Knausgård made his debut as a literary writer in 1998 with the novel Out of the World for which he received the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature as the first newcomer ever. He released the follow-up novel A Time for Everything in 2004, which was similarly well-received both nationally and internationally.
A strong ambassador for Nordic literature
However, Knausgård is predominantly recognized for his colossal masterpiece My Struggle, which was released in six volumes from 2009 to 2011. The sales figures for the serialized novels climbed above half a million in Norway and has since been released in the rest of the Nordic countries and most of the Western world. Because of that, Knausgård has become a literary rock star – not only in the Nordic countries but in the United States and in the UK as well.
In My Struggle he describes his upbringing and family life meticulously and with great emotional intensity. Internationally, this has led to a heavy debate regarding the distinction between fiction and reality. In the end, the novels have proven to be very relatable – for both male and female readers.
Since then, Knausgård has published several noteworthy essay collections, amongst them a four-volume seasonal book series dedicated to his unborn daughter. In 2019, he published a novel titled Fuglene under himlen (The Birds Beneath the Sky), in which Knausgård returns to the world of fiction through a tightly composed story, which is the baseline for a theatre version of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. The novel includes references to the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
Along with the honor, Karl Ove Knausgård will receive the bronze sculpture The Ugly Duckling by sculptress Stine Ring Hansen, a prize of 500.000 DKK and the diploma The Beauty of the Swan.
This Fall, Karl Ove Knausgård will be in Odense, Denmark to receive the award at a ceremony on October 30th, 2022.
Read more about the award and the former recipients at www.andersen-award.com.
Best regards
Jens Olesen, Chairman of the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award committee.
For further information, please contact:
Anja Linnet // anja@have.dk
Sandra Nynne Jensen // sandra@have.dk
