Kjell Askildsen (b. 1929) is considered a master of short stories. He entered the literary scene in 1953 with the collection of short stories From Now on I'll Take You All the Way Home, which received glittering reviews in the Oslo press, but was banished from the library in his home town, as it was considered immoral.
It was not until 1987, with the appearance of the short story collection A Sudden Liberating Thought, that Askildsen's writing really caught the notice of the reading public. Askildsen has received numerous literary awards. Among them are: The Critics' Prize (1983), the Aschehoug Prize (1991), the Critics’ Prize (1991) the Dobloug Prize (1996) and the Brage Honorary Prize (1996), the Swedish Academy’s Nordic Prize (2009) and the Sørlandet Honorary Award (2010). In 1991, he was nominated for the Nordic Council's Prize for Literature. His books have been translated into more than fifteen languages.
