45 Nordic Council Literature Prize winners

Naja Marie Aidt is a Danish-language poet and writer.

Johan Collett Müller Borgen was a Norwegian author, journalist and critic. His best-known work is the novel Lillelord for which he was awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature in 1955.

Baron Bo Gustaf Bertelsson Carpelan was a Finnish poet and author. He published his first book of poems in 1946, and received his Ph.D. in 1960. Carpelan, who wrote in Swedish, composed numerous books of verse, as well as several novels and short stories.

Lars Saabye Christensen, is a Norwegian/Danish author.

Einar Már Guðmundsson is an Icelandic author of novels, short stories, and poetry. His books have been translated into several languages.

Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958. He won a number of prizes for his poetry.

Kerstin Lillemor Ekman, née Hjorth, is a Swedish novelist.

Gyrðir Elíasson is an author and translator in Iceland.

Per Olov Enquist, also known as P. O. Enquist, was a Swedish author. He had worked as a journalist, playwright and novelist.

Kjartan Fløgstad is a Norwegian author. Fløgstad was born in the industrial city of Sauda in Ryfylke, Rogaland. He studied literature and linguistics at the University of Bergen. Subsequently, he worked for a period as an industrial worker and as a sailor before he debuted as a poet with his collection of poems titled Valfart (Pilgrimage) in 1968. He received the Nordic Council's Literature Prize for his 1977 novel Dalen Portland. Other major works include Fyr og flamme, Kron og mynt, Grand Manila and Grense Jakobselv.

Tua Birgitta Forsström is a Finnish writer who writes in Swedish. She was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1998 for the poetry collection Efter att ha tillbringat en natt bland hästar. Forsström's work is known for its engagement with the Finnish landscape, travel and conflicts within relationships. She often uses quotations in her work, sometimes placing them directly into her poems and at other times using them as introductions or interludes in her sequences. She has used quotations from Egon Friedell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hermann Hesse and Friedrich Nietszche. In the collection After Spending a Night Among Horses (1997) Forsström uses quotations from the Andrei Tarkovsky film Stalker, they are placed as interludes in a sequence of pieces and sit alone on the page, without direct reference to their source on the page, leaving this to a Notes & Quotations section at the end of the book.

Jon Olav Fosse is a Norwegian author and dramatist.

Andreas William Heinesen was a poet, novel writer, short story writer, children's book writer, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands.

Kari Hotakainen is a Finnish writer. Hotakainen started his writing career as a reporter in Pori. In 1986, he moved to Helsinki. He became a full-time writer in 1996. He has two children with his wife, sound technician Tarja Laaksonen, whom he married in 1983. He has also worked as a copywriter and as a columnist for the Helsingin Sanomat.

Peer Hultberg was a Danish author and psychoanalyst.

Eyvind Johnson was a Swedish novelist and short story writer. Regarded as the most groundbreaking novelist in modern Swedish literature he became a member of the Swedish Academy in 1957 and shared the Nobel Prize in Literature with Harry Martinson in 1974 with the citation: for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom.

Jan Kjærstad is a Norwegian author. Kjærstad is a theology graduate from MF Norwegian School of Theology and the University of Oslo. He has written a string of novels, short stories and essays and was editor of the literary magazine Vinduet. 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.

Olof Gustaf Hugo Lagercrantz was a Swedish writer, critic, literary scholar and publicist.

Kim Leine Rasmussen is a Danish-Norwegian author.

Sara Lidman was a Swedish writer.

Merethe Lindstrøm is a Norwegian writer.

Väinö Linna was a Finnish author. He gained literary fame with his third novel, Tuntematon sotilas, and consolidated his position with the trilogy Täällä Pohjantähden alla.

Ivar Lo-Johansson was a Swedish writer of the proletarian school. His autobiographical 1979 memoir, Pubertet (Puberty), won the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1979.

Veijo Väinö Valvo Meri was a Finnish writer. Much of his work focuses on war and its absurdity. The work is anti-war and has dark humor.

Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish writer and playwright. Oksanen has published five novels, of which Purge has gained the widest recognition. She has received several international and domestic awards for her literary work. Her work has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than two million copies.

Rói Reynagarð Patursson is a Faroese writer and philosopher. He was also the director of the Folk High School of the Faroes.

Per Petterson is a Norwegian novelist. His debut book was Aske i munnen, sand i skoa (1987), a collection of short stories. He has since published a number of novels to good reviews. To Siberia (1996), set in the Second World War, was published in English in 1998 and nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize. I kjølvannet, translated as In the Wake (2002), is a young man's story of losing his family in the Scandinavian Star ferry disaster in 1990 ; it won the Brage Prize for 2000. His 2008 novel Jeg forbanner tidens elv won The Nordic Council's Literature Prize for 2009, with an English translation published in 2010.

Klaus Rifbjerg was a Danish writer. He authored more than 170 novels, books and essays. In 1965 he co-produced the film 4x4 which was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival.

Hannu Sulo Salama is a Finnish author.

Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson, known as Sjón, is an Icelandic poet, novelist, and lyricist. His pen name is an abbreviation of his given name (Sigurjón). Sjón frequently collaborates with the singer Björk and has performed with The Sugarcubes as Johnny Triumph. His works have been translated into 30 languages.

Dag Solstad is a Norwegian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist whose work has been translated into 20 languages. He has written nearly 30 books and is the only author to have received the Norwegian Literary Critics' Award three times.

Göran Sonnevi is a Swedish poet and translator. Sonnevi grew up in Halmstad; he studied literature and linguistics at the University of Lund, also getting librarian training. For many years he has lived in Järfälla outside Stockholm.

Sara Brita Stridsberg is a Swedish author and translator. Her first novel, Happy Sally was about Sally Bauer, who in 1939 had become the first Scandinavian woman to swim the English Channel.

Eva Ström is a Swedish lyricist, novelist, biographer and literary critic. She made her literary debut in 1977 with the poetry collection Den brinnande zeppelinaren. Ström trained as a physician and worked in the medical profession 1974-1988 before becoming a full-time author.

Per Olof Sundman was a Swedish writer and politician.

Pia Tafdrup is a Danish writer; primarily a poet, she has also written a novel and two plays, as well as works for radio.

Thor Vilhjálmsson was an Icelandic writer. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Over the course of his life Vilhjálmsson wrote novels, plays and poetry and also did translations. In 1988 he won the Nordic Council Literature Prize for his novel Justice Undone. In 1992, he won the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize, known as the 'little Nobel'.

Tomas Gösta Tranströmer was a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator. His poems captured the long Swedish winters, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature. Tranströmer's work is also characterized by a sense of mystery and wonder underlying the routine of everyday life, a quality which often gives his poems a religious dimension. He has been described as a Christian poet.

Göran Tunström was a Swedish author. He grew up in Sunne, Värmland County. Tunström's style is personal and intimate, and has a clear autobiographical tone. Although active as an established author for nearly four decades, it was particularly after his The Christmas Oratorio was adapted as a movie in 1996 that he became widely known to the (Swedish) public. He participated in the Oslo International Poetry Festival.

Antti Elias Tuuri is a Finnish writer, known for his works dealing with Southern Ostrobothnia.

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, known as Áillohaš in the Northern Sami language, was a Finnish Sami writer, musician and artist. He was born in Enontekiö in Lapland province, Finland. He lived most of his life in Käsivarsi, close to the border of Sweden, and also in Skibotn in Norway. Valkeapää was born to a family of traditional reindeer herders, but was trained as a school teacher. His most well-known international debut was when he performed at the opening ceremony of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. He received the Nordic Council Literature Prize for The Sun, My Father in 1991.

Karl Vennberg was a Swedish poet, writer and translator. Born in Blädinge, Alvesta Municipality, Kronoberg County as the son of a farmer, Vennberg studied at Lund University and in Stockholm and worked as a teacher of Norwegian in a Stockholm folk high school. His first poem "Hymn och hunger" was published in 1937. During his career, he published 20 collections of poetry. His literary criticism had an important influence on the Swedish literary scene. He also translated literary works into Swedish, among others Franz Kafka's The Trial.

Tarjei Vesaas was a Norwegian poet and novelist. Vesaas is widely considered to be one of Norway's greatest writers of the twentieth century and perhaps its most important since World War II.

Herbjørg Wassmo is a Norwegian author.

Dorrit Willumsen is a Danish writer. She made her literary debut in 1965 with the short story collection Knagen.