| Johan Harstad | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 February 1979 Stavanger, Norway |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Genres | Novels |
Johan Harstad (born 10 February 1979) is an Norwegian short story writer, novelist and playwright.
Harstad was born in Stavanger. He made his literary debut in 2001, with a collection of short prose entitled Herfra blir du bare eldre ('From here on in you only get older'). The following year he published a collection of short stories called Ambulanse ('Ambulance') and 2005 saw the publication of his first novel, Buzz Aldrin, hvor ble det av deg i alt mylderet? ('Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?').[1] In 2009 the novel was made into a television series, starring Chad Coleman as well as other, well known Scandinavian actors. Rights to the book have been sold to USA, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, the Faroe Islands, Italy, Russia, South Korea and France.[1] Demanding that the book be translated into English, an editor in the publishing house Simon & Schuster likened Harstad's work with that of Jonathan Safran Foer.[2] The book will be published in English by Seven Stories Press in New York in June 2011. Several of Harstad's short stories have also been translated to English and Hindi.
In 2007, Harstad published Hässelby, a novel about the children's book character Alfie Atkins' life as an adult,[3] who ultimately is held responsible for the end of the world. The novel is influenced by David Lynch's TV series Twin Peaks, the theory of Synchronicity and Arthur Koestler's book The Roots of Coincidence. In 2008 he published his first sci-fi / horror novel, DARLAH, a crossover between young adult fiction and adult fiction. The novel, dealing with a return to the moon in 2012, have many references to sci-fi and horror films from the 1970s and '80s. For DARLAH he was awarded the 2008 Brage Prize in the category children's literature.[3]
Harstad is also a playwright, and four of his works was published in 2008 as Bsider ('B-sides'). In late 2008 Harstad was hired as an in-house playwright at the National Theatre of Norway, as the first to hold such a position.[4] He currently lives in Oslo.[1]
In addition, Johan Harstad runs a project/label/organization by the name of LACKTR (sometimes also referred to as The Lacktr Prpgnda Community). Through LACKTR he produces graphic design, sound, film, photography and text that is not distributed through his publisher, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.[1] Amongst the things produced, are a large variety of prints based on his books and the release of the album "Bring Out Your Life Vest", featuring music from the band The Kulta Beats and noise musicians Bjørn Erik Haugen and Kelly Davis. The album was released in a limited edition of 1,000 copies and attached to the first thousand copies of the novel Buzz Aldrin, What Happened To You In All the Confusion?, for which all the music was written. LACKTR also co-produced the first production of the play Krasnoyarsk and members from the organization are involved in the musical group The Sell Out Space Girls, which is a mix between a experimental jazz group, dj-ing and noise music. Since 2002, LACKTR have been responsible for doing all artwork and book design for the Norwegian editions of Harstad's books. Two fairly large blogs are being kept by LACKTR, but addresses to the sites have not been made public. Harstad himself have asked that no one creates links to the sites and instead pass the address to others by word of mouth, so that he and LACKTR remain free to publish whatever he wants on the site without being worried that the press or others misuse the information and/or graphics posted. The blog sometimes sees the publication of new short stories, essays and short texts, though graphic design takes up most of the site. Information posted, such as updates on travels and projects are known to be notoriously untrustworthy, as it blends facts, fiction, deliberate misinformation with actual news. LACKTR is a non-profit organization and from time to time collaborates with other Norwegian authors, musicians and artists, usually contributing material simply by the name LACKTR.