9 November 2018 – André Bjerke and Hans Børli Centenaries

Few authors have had such an impact on their generation as André Bjerke and Hans Børli. Both would have turned 100 this year.

André Bjerke was a big name in Norwegian literature, culture and debate for many decades. He was a lyricist, poet, polemicist, scientific theorist, comedian, children’s literature author, champion of the Riksmål national language, ghost hunter and crime novelist. He was also a more than capable chess player. 

Hans Børli is often remembered as the “poet of the forest”, but his poetry also often contained political and existentialist themes such as anxiety, faith and mortality. In his early collections, he followed the traditional poetry style of verse and rhyme, but over time, he expanded in a more modern direction with freer verse.