Olav Vesaas (born 21 December 1935) is a Norwegian journalist, biographer and publisher.

Biography

Vesaas was born on 21 December 1935 in

Vinje Vinje is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Åmot. General inform ...

to novelist

Tarjei Vesaas Tarjei Vesaas (20 August 1897 – 15 March 1970) was a Norwegian poet and novelist. Vesaas is widely considered to be one of Norway's greatest writers of the twentieth century and perhaps its most important since World War II. Biography Vesaas ...

and poet

Halldis Moren Vesaas Halldis Moren Vesaas (18 November 1907 – 8 September 1995) was a Norwegian poet, translator and writer of children's books. She established herself as one of the leading Norwegian writers of her generation. Biography She was born on a f ...

, and is a brother of Guri Vesaas. From 1968 to 1998 he was assigned with the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

, where he mainly hosted programs on literature. From 1974 to 1990 he hosted the

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

ic radio show ''Språkrøret'', along with philologist Finn-Erik Vinje. From 1978 to 1980 he chaired the

Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

publishing house

Det Norske Samlaget Det Norske Samlaget is a Norwegian publishing house founded on 24 March 1868 with the aim to promote and publish books in Landsmål, now known as Nynorsk. ''Det Norske Samlaget'' is now divided into two institutions: a literature organization, ''L ...

. In 2018 he was awarded , for his lifelong contributions to literature and language.

Selected works

*''Løynde land'' (1995, biography of

) *''A.O. Vinje – ein tankens hermann'' (2001, biography of

Aasmund Olavsson Vinje Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (6 April 1818 – 30 July 1870) was a Norwegian poet and journalist who is remembered for poetry, travel writing, and his pioneering use of Landsmål (now known as Nynorsk). Background Vinje was born into a poor but we ...

) *''Å vera i livet'' (2007, biography of

References

1935 births Living people People from Vinje NRK people Norwegian radio presenters Nynorsk-language writers Norwegian biographers {{Norway-writer-stub