Per Knutsen (1951-2022)

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Knutsen was nominated for the Brage Prize and received the Ministry of Culture’s Literature Award in recognition of his contributions as an author.

Per Knutsen was born and raised in Hamarøy. He left the island at an early age to attend school and moved to Bergen in the mid-1970s, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Over the course of 40 years, Knutsen published around 30 books, beginning with his debut children’s book Gutten og ørna (The Boy and the Eagle) in 1976. His next book, Du må plante flere blomster, Lina-Liv (1977), he later tried to withdraw out of fear that its queer themes might reveal his own sexuality.

He publicly came out as gay after publishing Mordere (Murderers) in 1984, a novel featuring a gay protagonist. Two of his books were adapted into films: Gutten som kunne fly (The Boy Who Could Fly, 1988) became the film Lakki (1992), and Svart kajal (Black Eyeliner, 1988) was adapted into Sebastian (1995)—both directed by Wam and Vennerød. Knutsen was nominated for the Brage Prize for his young adult novel Svømmersken (The Swimmer, 1994), which tells the story of a gay immigrant.

A later work featuring gay protagonists is Gamle menns elskov (The Love of Old Men, 2010). In the interview excerpt below, Knutsen discusses the reactions he received after the book’s release.

The full interview is available at the Queer Archives (Skeivt arkiv).
We met Per Knutsen in Bergen, April 2018.

Per Knutsen passed away in the summer of 2022.