Dag Skogheim (17 May 1928 – 4 December 2015) was a Norwegian teacher, poet, novelist, short story writer, biographer and non-fiction writer.

Biography

He was born in

Sømna Sømna is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland traditional region. The administrative center of Sømna is the village of Vik i Helgeland. Other villages in the municipality include Dalbotn, Sund, Vennesund, and ...

and grew up in

Brønnøysund Brønnøysund () is a town and the administrative centre of Brønnøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is also a former municipality within Nordland county. The village of Brønnøysund originally was declared a ladested in 1923 wh ...

. His parents were Halvdan Marius Pettersen Skogheim (1901–1974) and Edel Markussen (1906–1993). He attended the Elverum Teacher School and later Trondheim Teachers College prior to attending the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. Between 1961 and 1972 he worked as a teacher in

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrativ ...

Rendalen Rendalen is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bergset. Other villages in the municipality include Hanestad, Otn ...

and

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greater Asker) in Viken county, ...

. He made his literary debut in 1970 with the poetry collection ''... gagns menneske''. From 1972 he worked as a full-time writer. His literary breakthrough came in 1980, with the documentary novel ''Sulis'', the first of a four-volume chronicle about migrant railway construction workers in Northern Norway. He received the Nordland county's cultural award in 1991, and in the same year he received a lifelong

government scholar Government scholar (Norwegian, ''statsstipendiat'') is a position awarded by the Parliament of Norway upon the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Research and funded directly over the State budget of Nor ...

ship. ''Sanatorieliv'' from 2001 is a treatment of medical, social and cultural aspects of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

, partly based upon his own childhood experiences, when he spent eleven years in various sanatoriums. The book was awarded the ''Sverre Steen Prize'' from the

Norwegian Historical Association The Norwegian Historical Association ( no, Den norske historiske forening, HIFO) is a Norwegian historical organization. The Association was founded in 1869 by Michael Birkeland and Ludvig Ludvigsen Daae. It works to promote historical research an ...

in 2002. He was also a long-time columnist for ''

Klassekampen ''Klassekampen'' ( en, The Class Struggle) is a Norwegian daily newspaper. It describes itself as "the newspaper of the Left." The paper's net circulation is 34,000 (2021), and it has around 111,000 daily readers on paper (160,000 on Saturdays). ...

''. He died in December 2015.

References

1928 births 2015 deaths People from Sømna People from Brønnøy 20th-century Norwegian poets Norwegian male poets 20th-century Norwegian novelists 21st-century Norwegian novelists Norwegian non-fiction writers Norwegian male novelists Norwegian columnists Norwegian government scholars 20th-century Norwegian male writers 21st-century Norwegian male writers University of Oslo alumni Norwegian male non-fiction writers {{norway-writer-stub