Åsne Seierstad Norway
Norwegian journalist and author, born 10 February, 1970. Graduated in Russian and history of philosophy at Oslo University. 1993-96: Correspondent for Norwegian newspapers in Russia. 1997 Correspondent for Norwegian newspapers in China.
1998-99: Reporter for Norwegian television and radio, covering the war in Kosovo. Spent three months in Afghanistan in the Fall 2001 reporting to a number of major Scandinavian newspapers. In Baghdad from February until the end of April 2002, reporting daily to Norwegian, Swedish and Danish television, as well as to a number of international newspapers.
Åsne Seierstad is the only woman in the world to cover both the fall of Kabul in 2001 and the bombings of Baghdad in 2003. She is known for letting people speak for themselves, to tell their real stories, the stories we never see on the TV-news, stories that need time.
Her books have been translated into 40 languages world-wide.
As of July 2011, Åsne's work is represented by The Wylie Agency.
De krenkede: historier fra Tsjetsjenia
(The Angel of Grozny)
Cappelen, 2007
Åsne Seierstad began her writing career as a Moscow correspondent; the conflict in Chechnya was the first war she covered. Now ten years later, she returns to Chechnya and discovers that though the world's attention has moved on, the tragedy has continued, killing 10 to 15 % of the population and leaving a brutalised society with a particular toll on its children in its wake. Combining the violent history of the Caucasus and the battle between freedom fighters and the empire, with the story of the journeys Seierstad undertook in secrecy and disguise over the last two years, this will be another landmark book from this brave and brilliant writer.
Med ryggen mot verden - portretter fra Serbia
(With Their Backs to the World - Portraits from Serbia)
Cappelen, 2004.
Hundre og en dag: en reportagereise
(A Hundred and One Days: a Reporter's Journey)
Cappelen, 2003
Bokhandleren i Kabul
(The Bookseller of Kabul)
Cappelen, 2002
Is one of the best sold Norwegian books ever. Translation rights are sold to 38 countries, most recently to Taiwan. The book is a bestseller in many countries: in the UK it has been topping the bestseller lists since publication in March 2004: 40 consecutive weeks in the top five. The US paperback edition entered the bestseller list of The New York Times on publication in November 2004.
Total print run world-wide: more than 1,2 million copies.
Åsne Seierstad has received numerous awards, among them:
Best TV journalist, Norway 1999
Writer of the Year 2000, ELLE Magazine.
2002 awarded the most prestigeous Free Speech award for brave and independant war-reporting.
Nominated for The International Women's Media Foundation's 2002 Courage in Journalism Award.
Norminated for the most prestigeous Norwegian literary prize, BRAGE-PRISEN 2002.
Winner of the Prize of the Norwegian Booksellers 2002
Nominated for the 2003 Kurt Schork Award in International Jounralism
Winner of The Big Norwegian Prize for Journalism 2003
Winner of the prestigeous Italian ILARIA ALPI JOURNALISTIC AWARD 2003
Winner of the Norwegian Peer Gynt Award 2003
THE BOOKSELLER OF KABULwas shortlisted for the first Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year Award 2004.
Winner of EMMA (Ethnic Multicultural Media award), London, May 2004
Prix de Libraires, France 2004