Roy Jacobsen (born 26 December 1954) is a Norwegian novelist and short-story writer. Born in Oslo, he made his publishing début in 1982 with the short-story collection Fangeliv (Prison Life), which won Tarjei Vesaas' debutantpris. He is the winner of The Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature and two of his novels have been nominated for The Nordic Council's Literature Prize: Seierherrene (The Conquerors) in 1991 and Frost in 2004. The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles was published in Britain in 2008. Jacobsen lives in Oslo.

Early life and authorship

Jacobsen grew up in a suburb of Oslo located in the Groruddalen valley. In his teens, Jacobsen was a member of the criminal "Årvoll gang". At age 16 he was arrested by the police and kept in solitary confinement for 35 days. He was subsequently convicted of among other things weapons offences and theft, and given a six-month suspended sentence.^[1]

He has held a number of occupations, even after his debut as a novelist in 1982. Since 1990 he has been a full-time author. From 1979 to 1986 he lived at his mother's homestead at Solfjellsjøen in the municipality of Dønna in the northern Norwegian county of Nordland, and both the background of his mother as well as his upbringing in Groruddalen were central themes of his breakthrough novel Seierherrene from 1991.^{[citation needed]}

He is a member of the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature.^[2]