Linn Ullmann

Karin Beate "Linn" Ullmann (born 9 August 1966) is a Norwegian author and journalist. A prominent literary critic, she also writes a column for Norway's leading morning newspaper and has published seven novels.

Early life

Ullmann was born in Oslo, Norway, to Norwegian actress, author, and director Liv Ullmann and Swedish director and screenwriter Ingmar Bergman. She grew up in New York City and Oslo.

Ullmann attended Professional Children's School in Manhattan. When she was 15, she was "kicked out" (as she puts it) of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. She attended Juilliard School as a prospective dancer and graduated from New York University, where she studied English literature and began work on her PhD.

Career

When Ullmann’s first novel, Before You Sleep, was published in 1998, she was already known as an influential literary critic. Her second novel, Stella Descending, was published in 2001 and her third, Grace, in 2002. For Grace, Ullmann received the literary award The Readers' Prize in Norway, and Grace was named one of the top ten novels that year by the Danish newspaper Weekendavisen. In 2007, Grace was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in the United Kingdom, and in the Norwegian theater Riksteatret played a successful run of the theatrical play Grace, based on the novel.