Stig Sæterbakken (4 January 1966 – 24 January 2012) was a Norwegian author. He wrote novels, essays and poems, and worked as a translator.

Stig Sæterbakken
Stig Sæterbakken in 2007
Born(1966-01-04)4 January 1966
Lillehammer, Norway
Died24 January 2012(2012-01-24) (aged 46)
Norway
OccupationWriter

Life and career

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Stig Sæterbakken published his first book at the age of 18, a collection of poems called Floating Umbrellas, while still attending Lillehammer Senior High School. In 1991, Sæterbakken released his first novel, Incubus, followed by The New Testament in 1993. Estetisk salighet (Aesthetic Bliss) (1994) collected five years of work as an essayist.

Sæterbakken returned to prose in 1997 with the novel Siamese, which marks a significant departure in his style. The following year saw the release of Self-Control. And in 1999, he published Sauermugg. The three books, the S-trilogy—as they are often called—were published in a collected edition in 2000.

In February 2001, Sæterbakken's second collection of essays, The Evil Eye was released. As with Aesthetic Bliss this book also represents a summing up and a closing of a new phase in the authorship. In many ways the essays throw light on Sæterbakken's own prose over the last years, the S-trilogy in particular.

Siamese was released in Sweden by Vertigo. Vertigo followed up with a translation of Sauermugg in April 2007. This edition, however, was different from the Norwegian original. It included some of the later published Sauermugg-monologues, together with left overs from the time the book was written, about 50 pages of new material all together. The expanded edition was entitled Sauermugg Redux. Siamese has since been translated into Danish, Czech and English.

Sæterbakken's last novels were The Visit, Invisible Hands, Don't Leave Me and Through the Night. He was awarded the Osloprisen (Oslo Prize) in 2006 for The Visit. Invisible Hands was nominated for both the P2-listener's Novel prize and Youth's Critics' Prize in 2007. The same year he was awarded the Critics Prize and Bokklubbene's Translation Prize for his translation of Nikanor Teratologen's Assisted Living.

 
Sæterbakken at the 2009 Norwegian Festival of Literature

Sæterbakken was artistic director of The Norwegian Festival of Literature from 2006 until October 2008, when he resigned owing to the controversy which arose when David Irving was invited to the festival in 2009 (see below).

Sæterbakken's books were released and translated in several countries, among them Russia and US. April 2009 Flamme Forlag released an essay by Sæterbakken, in their series of book-singles, called Yes. No. Yes.

Sæterbakken committed suicide on January 24, 2012, aged 46.[1]

David Irving controversy in 2008

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In October 2008 Sæterbakken angrily resigned from his position as content director of the 2009 Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer. This followed the decision by the board of the festival on October 8/9 to renege on an invitation to controversial author and Holocaust denier David Irving to speak at the festival. Sæterbakken was the initiator of the invitation. A media storm had erupted in Norway over Irving's appearance and several high-profile writers had denounced the initiative and called for a boycott of the festival. Even Norway's free speech organization Fritt Ord had requested that its logo be removed from the festival. Sæterbakken characterized his colleagues as "damned cowards" arguing that they were walking in lockstep.[2]

Bibliography

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Year Title Type Publisher
1984 Flytende paraplyer Poetry Cappelen
1985 23 dikt Poetry Self-published
1986 Sverdet ble til et barn Poetry Cappelen
1988 Vandrebok Short stories Cappelen
1991 Incubus Novel Cappelen
1993 Det nye testamentet Novel Cappelen
1994 Estetisk salighet Essays Cappelen
1997 Siamese (Siamesisk) Novel Cappelen
1998 Self-Control (Selvbeherskelse) Novel Cappelen
1999 Sauermugg Novel Cappelen
2001 Det onde øye Essays Cappelen
2003 Kapital Novel Cappelen
2006 Besøket Novel Cappelen
2007 Invisible Hands (Usynlige hender) Novel Cappelen
2009 Ja. Nei. Ja Essay Flamme Forlag
2009 Don't Leave Me (Ikke forlat meg) Novel Cappelen Damm
2010 Dirty Things Essays Cappelen Damm
2010 Umuligheten av å leve Essay Flamme Forlag
2011 Through the Night (Gjennom natten) Novel Cappelen Damm
2011 Det fryktinngydende Essay Flamme Forlag
2011 De Press: Block to Block Non-fiction Falck Forlag
2012 Essays i utvalg Essays Cappelen Damm
2012 Der jeg tenker er det alltid mørkt Essays Flamme Forlag

Books translated to English

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  • "Siamese"(originally published in Norwegian in 1997)issued by Dalkey Archive Press (Champaign, Illinois, USA), January 2010. Translated by Stokes Schwartz.[3]
  • "Self-Control" issued by Dalkey Archive Press (Champaign, Illinois, US), November 2012. Translated by Sean Kinsella
  • "Through the Night" issued by Dalkey Archive Press (Champaign, Illinois, US), June 2013. Translated by Sean Kinsella. Long-listed for Best Translated Book Award 2014.

References

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  1. ^ Fotland, Maiken Nøtsund (January 25, 2012). "Stig Sæterbakken er død". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved January 25, 2012.
  2. ^ Olsen, Geir (October 10, 2008). "Retrett mot Davig Irving. Irving: – De tør ikke møte meg". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Oslo, Norway. Retrieved October 10, 2008.
  3. ^ Reviewed in the New York Times, Book Review, January 10, 2010, p.8.