Sigbjørn Skåden
Sigbjørn Skåden (b. 1976) comes from the Sámi village of Láŋtdievvá (Planterhaug) in Troms County, Northern Norway. He writes in both indigenous Sámi language and in Norwegian and made his debut in 2004 with the poetry collection Skuovvadeddjiid gonagas («The King Of Shoemakers»). Since then he’s published three novels, one children’s book and one more poetry collection, as well as having written numerous performative works for stage and collaborative art projects. Skåden has among other things been named young artist of the year by Riddu Riđđu Indigenous Festival, he’s been the prologue writer for the Arctic Arts Festival, one of the key speakers of the indigenous forum at the Medellin Poetry Festival and has been selected as a feature writer for the European poetry platform Versopolis. For his books he’s been nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literary Award, The Norwegian Broadcasting Listerners’ Award and has received the Havmann Award for best book by a North Norwegian writer. His latest book to date is the novel Fugl («Bird») from 2019.