Jon Fosse was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway and has written over thirty books and twenty-eight plays that have been translated into over 40 languages. His first novel, Red, Black, was published in 1983, and was followed by such works as Melancholia I & II, Aliss at the Fire, and Morning and Evening, which are available in translation from Dalkey Archive Press. He is one of the world’s most produced living playwrights. In 2007, Fosse became a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite of France, and he was awarded the International Ibsen Award in 2010. In 2011, he moved into Grotten, an honorary residence for artists on the grounds of the Royal Palace in Oslo. He was awarded the European Prize for Literature in 2014 and the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2015.

Damion Searls is an award-winning translator and writer whose translation of Jon Fosse’s novel A New Name was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.