Åsne Seierstad
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| Åsne Seierstad | |
 Åsne Seierstad at Café Sting 2007
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| Born | February 10, 1970  Oslo, Norway |
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| Occupation | Broadcast Journalist, Author |
Åsne Seierstad (born February 10, 1970) is a Norwegian freelance journalist who has written a bestseller and her work has been translated into 38 languages. She studied Russian, Spanish, and the history of Philosophy at Oslo University. She worked as a correspondent in Russia between 1993 and 1996. She then worked as a correspondent in China in 1997. 2001 She followed the Northern Alliance into Kabul after the fall of the Taliban government.
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[edit] Personal and professional life
Åsne Seierstad studied at the University of Oslo where she successfully completed her studies in Russian, Spanish and the history of philosophy. From 1993 until 1996 she reported for the Arbeiderbladet in Russia and in 1997 from China. From 1998 until 2000 she worked for the national television network NRK (Norsk Rikskringasting) where she reported from the Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo. “With Their Backs To The World: Portraits from Serbia”, her first book, is an account of this time. This book was extended and republished in 2004 when she again visited Serbia. The name was changed slightly, to “Portraits of Serbia”, signalling that Serbia’s back is no longer turned to the world.
As a reporter she is particularly remembered for her hard work, especially in warzones such as Afghanistan, Iraq and most recently Chechnya, as well as for her reports on the September 11 attacks in the United States of America. "The Bookseller of Kabul", her second, bestselling book, is an account of the time she spent living with an Afghan family in Kabul after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Her other books include "One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal" which describes the three months she spent in Iraq in the build-up to the US-led invasion in 2003, and most recently "Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya", an account of the time she spent in Chechnya after the war.
She currently lives and works in Oslo.
[edit] Awards and honours
1999: Gullruten Award for the best news coverage from Kosovo.
2001: Fritt Ord Award
2002: Årets Frilanser Award from the Norwegian reporters association. Also received the Bokhandlerprisen award from the association of Norwegian authors.
2003: The Peer Gynt and Den Store Journalistprisen Award which is the highest honour a reporter in Norway can receive.
[edit] The Bookseller of Kabul
Invited to live with Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul, and his family for months, Åsne was allowed to hear the Khans speak for themselves, giving us a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and of a country of great cultural riches and extreme contradictions: "The Bookseller of Kabul". Through it, she has given readers a first-hand look at Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it.
When Khan later read this book, he was very unhappy with the way she had described him and his family; he claimed that he was falsely portrayed as a tyrant, when all he had done was to invite Seierstad to be a guest in his home. Seierstad claimed that she had simply described things the way she experienced them. The novel paints an unflattering portrait of Khan as a seeker after freedom and liberal values in his country whilst at the same time maintaining an iron grip on his family, and in particular its female members.
[edit] Portraits of Serbia
While working for the national Norwegian television network Åsne Seierstad was in Yugoslavia (today's Serbia) during the Kosovo War and NATO bombing of the country of 1999. She also recorded the events of the democratic revolution which overthrew Slobodan Milošević in October 2000.
In her book Portraits of Serbia Seierstad follows thirteen people from different parts of the country, representing a rough cross-section of Serbia - people of varying backgrounds and political beliefs. She describes their lives and records their thoughts, providing a degree of insight into Serbia's national psyche and its historical causes. She visited Serbia three times during the book. Firstly in 1999, after the NATO bombing campaign, when Milosevic is still in power and when UN sanctions are still in place. She visited again during the democratic revolution in 2000. Her final visit came in 2004 after the assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic and the deportation of alleged war criminals (including Slobodan Milosevic himself) to the ICTY in The Hague, with most of her characters feeling disillusioned with the country's lack of progress.
As well as talking about ordinary Serbians, including a displaced Serbian family from Kosovo, Seierstad also writes about her interviews with famous Serbian politicians from both Milošević's Socialist Party and the Democratic parties of Serbia, as well as television personalities and the musician Rambo Amadeus.
[edit] A Hundred and One Days
From January until April 2003—for one hundred and one days—Åsne Seierstad worked as a reporter in Baghdad for Scandinavian, German, and Dutch media. Through her articles and live television coverage she reported on the events in Iraq before, during, and after the attacks by the American and British forces.But Seierstad was after a story far less obvious than the military invasion.
From the moment she arrived in Baghdad, Seierstad was determined to understand the modern secrets of an ancient place and to find out how the Iraqi people really live. In "A Hundred and One Days", she introduces us to daily life under the constant threat of attack—first from the Iraqi government and later from American bombs. Moving from the deafening silence of life under Hussein to the explosions that destroyed the power supply, the water supply, and security, Seierstad sets out to discover: What happens to people when the dam bursts? What do they choose to say when they can suddenly say what they like? What do they miss most when their world changes overnight?Displaying the novelist’s eye and lyrical storytelling that have won her awards around the world, Seierstad here brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters to tell the stories we never see on the evening news.
The only woman in the world to cover both the fall of Kabul in 2001 and the bombings of Baghdad in 2003, Åsne Seierstad has redefined war reporting with her mesmerizing book.
