Sigbjørn Skåden

Sigbjørn Skåden (b. 1976) is from Skånland in Sør-Troms, Northern Norway. He has previously published two poetry collections and one novel in Sámi, and in 2007 he was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize as the nominee from the Sámi language area.

In 2014, he published the critically acclaimed novel Watch Over Those Who Sleep, for which he received the Havmann Prize for the best book from Northern Norway. The novel was also nominated for the NRK P2 Listeners’ Novel Prize. His novel Bird was published in 2019, followed by Planterhaug in 2025, which was simultaneously published in Sámi under the title Láŋtdievvá. Skåden was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize for the novel. Planterhaug was also nominated for the Brage Prize and the Havmann Prize.

In addition to his literary work, Sigbjørn Skåden has written texts for a wide range of interdisciplinary and performance-based projects. Among other distinctions, he has been named Young Artist of the Year at the Indigenous festival Riddu Riđđu, served as prologue writer for the Arctic Arts Festival (Festspillene i Nord-Norge), and was selected as an author for the European poetry platform Versopolis.

3 titlesSold in 6 territoriesInternationally published

Bibliography

2025Backwoods FableLiterature and FictionSold · 4

2019HomeLiterature and FictionSold · 1

2012The SámiChildren's BooksSold · 1

In the news

Nomination

Backwoods Fable is nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize

Sigbjørn Skåden's novel Backwoods Fable is loved by critics and was nominated for prestigious Brage Prize – now it's nominated to the most important literature prize we have in the Nordics. The novel was published simultaneously in Norwegian, and in Thorne Sami under the title Láŋtdievvá. Skåden is nominated with both versions of the novel.

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