Arnljot Eggen was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 poet, and has also written plays and children's books.

He was born in Tolga

Tolga, Norway

Tolga is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tolga....

. He made his literary debut in 1951, with the poetry collection Eld og is. He was awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature for the children's book Den lange streiken. He received the Melsom Prize in 1971 for the songbook , and again in 1995 for the poetry collection Det flyktige varige. He wrote in both standards of written Norwegian, Bokmål

Bokmål

Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....

 and Nynorsk

Nynorsk

Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...

.

In the 1970s he became affiliated with the Workers' Communist Party

Workers' Communist Party (Norway)

The Workers' Communist Party was a Norwegian communist party . AKP was a maoist party and one of two communist parties in Norway; the other was the older Communist Party of Norway which has remained pro-Soviet. The relationship between the two parties was characterized by strong hostility.AKP was...

. He was considered one of the leading left-wing poets in Norway at the time, and was a pioneer of political theatre

Political theatre

In the history of theatre, there is long tradition of performances addressing issues of current events and central to society itself, encouraging consciousness and social change. The political satire performed by the comic poets at the theatres, had considerable influence on public opinion in the...

, the best known play being 1973's Pendlerne. He also had a column in Klassekampen

Klassekampen

Klassekampen is a Norwegian daily newspaper, which styles itself as "the daily left-wing newspaper".Klassekampen was founded in 1969 with a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist platform. Until recently, it was owned by The Workers' Communist Party...

.

Awards

• Melsom Prize 1971
• Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature 1981
• Dobloug Prize
  Dobloug Prize
  The Dobloug Prize is a literature prize awarded for Swedish and Norwegian fiction. The prize is named after Norwegian businessman and philanthropist Birger Dobloug pursuant to his bequest. The prize sum is . The Dobloug Prize is awarded annually by the Swedish Academy.-Prize winners:...
  
   1985 (Shared with Bergljot Hobæk Haff
  Bergljot Hobæk Haff
  Bergljot Hobæk Haff is a Norwegian novel writer. Upon completing her education, she traveled to Denmark, and taught there for 24 years before returning to Oslo. She made her debut with the novel Raset in 1956...
  
  )
• Melsom Prize 1995