FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Author Jon Fosse wins the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2023.
Dallas, Tex. (October 5, 2023) – The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2023 is awarded to the Norwegian author Jon Fosse, “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”
In its citation, the Swedish Committee wrote: “His immense oeuvre written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations. While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly recognised for his prose.”
Dalkey Archive Press is the publisher of several of Jon Fosse’s books in English translation, including the novels Trilogy (translated by May-Brit Akerholt), Morning and Evening (translated by Damion Searls), Aliss at the Fire (translated by Damion Searls), Boathouse (translated by May-Brit Akerholt), Melancholy (translated by Grethe Kvernes and Damion Searls), and Melancholy II (translated by Eric Dickens), and a book of essays, An Angel Walks Through the Stage (translated by May-Brit Akerholt).
From Dalkey Archive Press editorial director Chad W. Post: “From the first sentence I read of Melancholy on submission twenty years ago, I knew that Fosse was a special author. The intricate structure of his books, the sense of humanity pervasive throughout, and the variety of styles he deploys—from the elliptical in Melancholy and, more recently, Septology to the Beckett-like quality of Trilogy—make it immediately evident that we’re in the presence of a master. It’s also a testament to John O’Brien for taking a chance on this manuscript to publish at Dalkey Archive in 2006, and bringing out six more of his works to great acclaim, always with an eye on future generations who would be reading Fosse for decades to come. Fosse is an author most definitely deserving of the Nobel Prize, and it’s an honor to have acquired his first novel translated into English, to be reissuing his major works, and to witness this moment of appreciation for one of the all-time best.”
Dalkey Archive Press recently republished Trilogy in a new edition in September 2022 as part of its Dalkey Archive Essentials series. A new edition of Morning and Evening will join the series in January 2024. The Dalkey Archive Essentials series brings back the most iconic books in the full Dalkey Archive catalog with new covers designed by Justin Childress, in paperback and digital formats. In addition, Dalkey Archive Press has plans to republish Melancholy and Melancholy II (with a forthcoming retranslation by Damion Searls) in a collected omnibus edition.
Dalkey Archive Press ushered in a wave of translations of Fosse’s fiction, starting with Melancholy in 2006, due to the stewardship of Dalkey Archive Press publisher John O’Brien and editor Chad W. Post, and of translators Damion Searls and May-Brit Akerholt. Fosse has also been published in English translation by Transit Books and Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK.
“Congratulations to Jon Fosse, and to his translators Damion Searls and May-Brit Akerholt,” says Deep Vellum and Dalkey Archive Press publisher Will Evans. “It is a tremendous honor to publish so many diverse books through Fosse’s remarkable career, and to carry forth the legacy forged at Dalkey Archive Press when Chad W. Post and John O’Brien signed on to publish Melancholy thanks to Damion Searls’s translation submission. This prize is also a huge vindication for independent publishers, including our colleagues in publishing Fosse at Transit Books and Fitzcarraldo Editions, continuing to publish the world’s most compelling literature, and to the independent bookstores who carry the torch for writers like Fosse, introducing the world to readers everywhere!”
