Beate Grimsrud is this year’s winner of the Brage Prize for Fiction – NRK Kultur og underholdning

The author who has now won the Brage Prize passed away earlier this year of cancer, aged just 57. Receives award for critically acclaimed book “Suggest We Wake Up.”

This is the first time that an author has received the Brage Prize after his death.

For the brother, it was both strong, joyous and an honor to be able to receive the award on behalf of his sister.

– I am very proud. Everyone close to Beate thinks this is something fantastic.

– And then of course it’s very sad that Beate couldn’t experience this for herself. She would have been very happy about this, she says.

Literary reading party

Beate Grimsrud broke through with the novel “Sneaking an Ax” in 1998.

Since then, she has distinguished herself in both Norwegian and Swedish public life, not only as a writer, but also as a playwright and director.

His novel “I Suggest We Wake Up” received rave reviews when it came out this year.

The main character in the book learns that he has cancer and life is turned upside down. And thoughts of life and death arise.

“The author manages to lift the hideous. See him through a magnifying glass and binoculars, tickle him under the belly and shake him on the back of the neck, ”wrote Marta Norheim, a literature reporter for NRK.

According to the jury, this year’s winner is a “literary reading party” and, in addition, it contains everything one expects when opening a new book:

“The winning novel is simply a cornucopia of sharp formulations, precise observations, dizzying philosophical thoughts, and wild imagination.”

– I had a proud mother for this book.

Bjørne Grimsrud believes that Beate would have been proud and happy of herself if she had experienced this.

– Beate used to say that a book is like a little child that you let out into the world, you never know how it goes with it. But she had a proud mother of this book..

According to him, from the beginning he decided to become a writer, and for him and the rest of the family it has been a pleasure to continue his writing.

– She was a record of telling stories that had good reading experiences and that would reach many. And he managed to achieve his goals, he says.

The plan is to establish a memorial scholarship in Beate’s memory and place the cash award there.

– Because she was very upset that the new writers had the same opportunities as her.

– It is an enormous joy, and a melancholy

Kari Joynt, Editor-in-Chief of Cappelen Damm worked closely with Beate Grimsrud.

– It is an enormous joy, and a sadness associated with her, because we would have liked to see that she herself could have received the award, she says.

Jøynt said that Beate Grimsrud worked day and night on the book for the past two years, and that she would have been very happy to receive the Brage Prize, a price she set high.

– I wanted to jump and jump on stage to receive the award, he adds.

According to Joynt, Grimsrud was a record of telling stories about being a human being and reaching the reader with them.

That’s why Grimsrud’s writing and especially “I Suggest We Wake Up” has been a success, he says.

– Write about the main human medical problems that are not difficult to understand and that can be addressed. He has a funny trick that makes you laugh after he is very serious.

She believes that Grimsrud would have had rich authorship, had it not been for the interruption too soon.

Historical Prize Brage Prize

Tonight there was a historic Brage Awards ceremony.

In addition to the Grimsrud award, three awards were given to climate writers.

On the day O. Hessen got two of the day. He received the Brage Award in the category of non-fiction for the book “The world at the turning point.” In addition, it could be adorned with the generous honorific award.

He thus becomes the first author to win two awards in the same year.

– It’s overwhelming and unexpected. I consider myself first and foremost a researcher, but now I have to admit that I am also an author, he says.

In the open class category, the award went to “The Great Weather Guide” by author and weather enthusiast Thomas Horne.

While Jenny Jordahl received the award in the category of children’s and youth books for saying the book “What really happened to you?”