forlater havet (Where the Train Leaves the Sea). Since then he has written
thirteen critically acclaimed volumes of poetry, five novels and one essay,
Om morgenen den 25. Februar 1848 (2002). He has also translated the
poets Alain Bosquet, Eugenio Montale, Frank Kuppner and Edmond Jabès.
He is the editor of publisher Oktober’s series of translated poetry.
In 1996 he was awarded the Halldis Moren Vesaas poetry-prize. In its
grounds the jury said that Christiansen's body of work holds a unique
position because it exposes a new phase in modernity in Norway with its
‘tough but sensual masculine urbanity, not alienated from, but integrated
with the elements, the shiftings in nature, transience and permanence’.
In 1998 Christiansen was awarded the Språklig samling Prize for Literature
and in 2003 the prestigeous Dobloug Prize.
In his postscript to Selected Poems, the Danish poet Per Højholt stresses
the brevity, the paradoxal and elusive qualities in Christiansen’s poetry,
which foregrounds exploration: ‘The world persists in its weird and chaotic
ways, but Rune Christiansen’s poems indicate paths through it, that are
perfectly unique, and fruitful’.
Christiansen is a poet distinguished by an impressionable, warm, and
offbeat language. To puncture the cliches of everyday language demands
a high degree of precision. Christiansen apparently writes quiet poems,
but manages to ignite a fresh experience, where sudden flashes of clarity
constituents are treated as a reality equal to the concrete objects and
landscapes that his poems focus and expose so distinctly.
Christiansen has stated that ‘poetry borrows its authority from wanting’. He
characterizes his poems as ‘transient rooms where oblivion and recognition
illuminate and amplify each other as equal and simultaneous events’.
Poetry books: Hvor toget forlater havet (1986), I dødvanne (1989), Hvalene
i Glasgow (1990), Skilpaddedøgn (1991), Dypt mørke (1992), En følsom tid
(1993), Motormelkeveien (1994), AntiCamera (1996), Lett ferd: Dikt i utvalg
(1998), om trær som vokser seg skakke i trange skyggefulle hager, men som
likevel (eller nettopp derfor) gjør inntrykk og som man husker livet ut
(2002), Samlede dikt (2004), Jeg har tenkt meg til de elysiske sletter (2011).
His novels include: Steve McQueen er død (1997), På ditt aller vakreste
(2000), Intimiteten (2003), Fraværet av musikk (2007), Krysantemum
(2009), Ensomheten i Lydia Ernemans liv (2014).
He has received the following prizes: The Oktober Prize (1994), Halldis
Moren Vesaas Prize (1996), Språklig Samling Prize for Literature (1998),
The Dobloug Prize (2003), The Oslo Prize (2007), Riksmålsforbundets
litteraturpris (2009), the prestigious Brageprisen and Gyldendalprisen 2014.
Rune Christiansen's personal site