Bjørg Vik

1935 - 2018

Norway

Bjørg Vik grew up in Oslo in a petty-bourgeois family. After completing upper secondary schooling and training at the Norwegian Journalist Academy, she became a journalist in Porsgrunn for five years and an active, modern feminist in the 1970s. She has three children, and one son is a writer.

Bjørg Vik made her debut in 1963 with the short story collection Søndag ettermiddag and has published more than twenty works: short stories, such as Fortellinger om frihet, 1975, radio plays, theatre plays, and novels. Her play To akter for fem kvinner (1974; Eng. tr. Two Acts for Five Women), which was performed all over the world, goes straight to the heart of the issues of the women’s movement, not just in Norway. In 1988 she published the first of three autobiographical novels, Små nøkler, store rum, which was followed by Poplene på St. Hanshaugen, 1991, and Elsi Lund, 1994, the latter about Elsi Lund’s childhood in 1940s’ and 1950s’ Oslo.

Typical themes in her books are the lives of women, their love, freedom, everyday world, and their relationship to children and work, and her works are well-known and read throughout Scandinavia. A number of Bjørg Vik’s works have been broadcast on radio and television and have been translated into as many as twenty-five languages.

Additions by the editorial team 2011:

The above biography was first published in 1998. Since then, Bjørg Vik has written the plays Alt kvinner tilgir, 1999, Salong saratustra, 2001, and the short story collection Forholdene tatt i betraktning, 2002.