Stig Sæterbakken

Stig Sæterbakken (born January 4, 1966) is a Norwegian author. He published his first book already at the age of 18, a collection of poems called "Floating Umbrellas", while still attending Lillehammer Senior High School. In the years to follow, he published yet another collection of poems, "The Sword Became a Child" (1986), and a collection of stories, "Wanderer's Book" (1988).

In 1991, Sæterbakken released his first novel, "Incubus", followed by "The New Testament" in 1993, a novel that whipped up a storm amongst many Norwegian critics, due to its controversial subject, the post-war democratic Europe's use of Adolf Hitler and Nazism as symbols of ultimate evil. The mix up of historical facts and fiction, mirroring the book's main theme, the quest for the secret diaries of Hitler, was also resented by many critics.ww

"Aestethic Bliss" (1994) summed up five years' work as an essayist. The book presented both previously published and new essays on a variety of subjects, such as Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange", Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy", Witold Gombrowicz' "Ferdydurke", Julio Cortázar's "Hopscotch", Octave Mirbeau's "Torture Garden", Lars von Trier's Europe-trilogy and Robert Harmon's action-thriller "The Hitcher", the works of artists Per Inge Bjoerlo and Jeff Koons, in addition to a correspondence with Jan Kjærstad on Bret Easton Ellis' "American Psycho".

After some difficult years, Sæterbakken returned to prose in 1997 with the novel "Siamese", which marks a significant break in his authorship. The book was a surprise to many people, with its simple crude style. 1998 saw the release of "Self-Control", and in 1999 came "Sauermugg". The three books, or the S-trilogy, as they are often called, were published in a collected edition, summer 2000.

Fall 2000 saw the release of a book which was a result of many years' work, a new translation of a selection of short-stories by Edgar Allan Poe, combined with comprehensive notes and an afterword where Poe's position is discussed, both in his own times and in the present day. "The man of the crowd and other short-stories" (Bokvennen Forlag) was met with enthusiasm, and Sæterbakken was praised for his dedicated norwegianizing of Poe's advanced and radical prose.

In February 2001, Sæterbakken's second collection of essays, "The Evil Eye" was released. As with "Aestethic Bliss" in 1994, this book also represents a summing up and a closing of a new phase in the authorship. In many ways the essays throw light on Sæterbakken's own prose over the last years, the S-trilogy in particular. "The evil eye" consists mainly of individual texts on literary works and writers, such as Faulkner, Beckett, Strindberg, Poe, Kierkegaard, Ján Ondrus and Emmanuel Bove. But here is also an essay on Peter Handke's disputed agitation for the Serbs in the Balkan conflict, and a long reflection on Adolf Hitler's role as a symbol of evil, as a cultural travesty in post-war democratic Europe. A joint theme for all the essays is what one could term "the problem of evil". The writer insists on art and literature as a field where common moral rules are not in force, a place where both the writer and the reader can explore the outer limits of human experience without the bonds and obligations that usually keeps us restrained.

Sæterbakkens latest books are the novels "Capital", "The Visit" and "Invisible Hands". For "The Visit", he was awarded the Osloprisen (Oslo Prize) in 2006.

David Irving controversy in 2008

In October 2008 Sæterbakken angrily resigned from his position as content director of the 2009 Norwegian Festival of Literature at Lillehammer. This followed the decision by the board of the festival on October 8/9 to renege an invitation to controversial historian and Holocaust denier David Irving to speak at the festival. Sæterbakken was the initiator of the invitation. A media storm had erupted in Norway over Irving's appearance and several high-profile writers had denounced the initiative and called for a boycott of the festival. Even Norway's free speech organization Fritt Ord had requested that its logo be removed from the festival. Sæterbakken characterized his colleagues as "damned cowards" arguing that they were walking in pace. [cite news |first= Geir |last= Olsen |authorlink= Geir Olsen |title= Retrett mot Davig Irving. Irving: ndash De tør ikke møte meg |url= http://www.vg.no/rampelys/artikkel.php?artid=528392 |work= Verdens Gang |location= Oslo, Norway |date= 2008-10-10 |accessdate=2008-10-10|language= Norwegian]

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