Meny
  • It is 80 years today since Kjartan Fløgstad was born.

    Norwegian author born in the industrial city of Sauda. He has worked at the smelting plant in Sauda and on a Norwegian cargo ship on which he travelled all over the world, especially South America. His experiences and impressions from this continent would later become highly significant to his work. (In 2004 Fløgstad received a Chilean arts award.) He briefly studied architecture at the ...

    Further reading

  • It is 72 years today since Orhan Pamuk was born.

    Turkish author, born and grew up in Istanbul, Nisantasi, in an affluent middle-class family. The father was a civil engineer, as was Orhan’s grandfather, who laid the foundations for the family’s fortune. After graduating from school – the secular American Robert College – Pamuk studied Architecture and Journalism. Until he was 22, he devoted himself to painting and dreamt of becoming an artist. T...

    Further reading

  • It is 67 years today since Fred Vargas was born.

    Fred Vargas is a pseudonym used by the French historian, archaeologist and crime writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau. "Vargas" was a character played by Ava Gardener in The Barefoot Contessa; the name was first used by Audoin-Rouzeau’s twin sister Joëlle, the visual artist Jo Vargas. Their father, Philippe Audoin-Rouzeau, was a journalist and a famous figure in surrealist circles. He was very part...

    Further reading

  • It is 158 years today since E.W. Hornung was born.

    The English teacher and journalist Ernest William Hornung (Willie to his family) was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law. If Sir Arthur was the father of Sherlock Holmes, the most famous fictional detective in the world, you could say that Hornung created the most famous crook, the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles. Like Holmes, Raffles has occasionally turned up in books by other authors.
    H...

    Further reading

Sample of Authors

Författarporträtt av Mistral, Gabriela

Mistral, Gabriela
1889 - 1957

The Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral was born in Vicuña as Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga. She came from a...

Further reading
Författarporträtt av Singer, Isaac Bashevis

Singer, Isaac Bashevis
1904 - 1991

Isaac Bashevis Singer, born Izak Hersz Zynger, was the last of the great 20th century authors in Yiddish. He was born in...

Further reading
Portrait image of Alexander McCall Smith

McCall Smith, Alexander
1948 -

The British author Alexander McCall Smith – called Sandy by family and friends – was born in Bulawayo in the then British col...

Further reading
Författarporträtt av Ani, Friedrich

Ani, Friedrich
1959 -

Friedrich Ani was born in Kochel am See, Bavaria. His father was Syrian and his mother was born in Silesia. After...

Further reading