herbjørnsrud was born in heddal. he grew up on a remote farm in telemark and became a farmer himself. after working as a teacher for some time, he started writing in his early forties and published his first collection of stories, "vitner" ("witnesses"), in 1979. this collection was recognized as the best literary début of the year with tarjei vesaas' debutantpris. since then, he has published six more collections of stories, which have been well received by critics. herbjørnsrud has been awarded several prizes for his work, including the prestigious "kritikerprisen" in 1997, the "dobloug prize" in 2005 and "aschehougprisen" in 2005. he was nominated for the nordic council´s literature prize in 1998 and 2002. in 1999 herbjørnsrud was nominated for the european aristeion prize. his short stories have been translated into several languages, including german, english, french, russian and hindi.