Jan Olav Gatland (born 1949)

Translator's Note: This is a machine-assisted translation completed on July 28, 2025. While care has been taken to maintain accuracy, this translation has not yet undergone human review or validation. Please note that specialized terms, historical references, and nuanced content may benefit from expert review.

Gatland has written several biographies, including works on Torvald Tu, Rolf Thesen, and Åsmund Sveen. He is also the author of Mitt halve liv (My Half Life), which explores Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson’s friendships with Clemens Petersen and other men. His book Mellom linjene – homofile tema i norsk litteratur (Between the Lines – Gay Themes in Norwegian Literature, 1990) received significant attention.

The author has lived and worked in Bergen, Tromsø, and Oslo. In each of these cities, he has been active in the queer community through organizations such as Homofil bevegelse Bergen (HBB), DNF-48, and Homofil bevegelse Tromsø (HBT).

Gatland holds a Cand. philol. degree and has worked as a secondary school teacher, case officer, senior librarian at the University of Bergen, and non-fiction author. He has also worked as a critic and journal editor.

In an excerpt from the interview, he talks about how he developed an interest in gay themes in Norwegian literature—and the resistance he encountered when he began writing about it.

The full interview is available at Skeivt arkiv, part of the Special Collections at the University Library of Bergen.

Skeivt arkiv met Jan Olav Gatland in Bergen, January 2018.