Karl Knausgaard

Karl Ove Knausgård is a Norwegian writer known for autobiographical fiction and essays. He is best known for My Struggle (2009–2011), a six-volume series translated into over 20 languages. His significant awards include the Brage Prize (2009) and the Jerusalem Prize (2017).

Karl Ove Knausgård was born on 6 December 1968 in Oslo, Norway. He spent his childhood on Tromøya in Arendal and later in Kristiansand. He studied arts and literature at the University of Bergen. During and after his studies, he held various jobs while writing. These included teaching at a high school in northern Norway, selling cassettes, working in a psychiatric hospital, and on an oil platform. He moved to Stockholm, Sweden, in the 1990s to continue writing.

His literary debut came with Out of the World (1998), which won the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature. He was the first debut novelist to receive the award. His second novel, A Time for Everything (2004), combined Biblical themes with philosophical reflection. It was nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award.

Between 2009 and 2011, Knausgård published the six My Struggle books. In over 3,500 pages, they explored his childhood, relationships, and inner life. The series was controversial in Norway, both for its title—Min Kamp, also used for Mein Kampf—and its exposure of personal lives. In a 2010 interview, he said: "Sometimes I feel I made a Faustian bargain." His uncle and ex-wife publicly criticised the project. Still, the series received international acclaim and sold over 450,000 copies in Norway alone.

After My Struggle, Knausgård published the Seasons Quartet (2015–2016), a set of four autobiographical books written for his children. He also wrote essays on Edvard Munch and Anselm Kiefer and helped translate the Bible into Norwegian. His publishing house, Pelikanen, launched in 2010, has released works by Peter Handke and Denis Johnson in Norwegian.

Knausgård began a new novel cycle with The Morning Star (2020), followed by The Wolves of Eternity (2021), The Third Realm (2022), The Night School (2023), and Arendal (2024). These novels examine life, death, and metaphysical questions in Norwegian settings.

Karl Knausgaard currently lives in London with his wife, Michal Knausgård, and their children.