Tordis Ørjasæter (25 March 1927 – 25 March 2026) was a Norwegian literary critic, biographer, professor of educational science, and novelist. She was particularly engaged in culture and literature for children. Ørjasæter wrote biographical works on Sigrid Undset, Selma Lagerlöf, Tove Jansson, and Nini Roll Anker. She was awarded the Brage Prize in 1993.
Background Born in Oslo on 25 March 1927, Ørjasæter was a daughter of lecturer Toralf Greni and Agnes Morch. In 1953 she married author and journalist (1925–2006). Her father-in-law was author Tore Ørjasæter (1886–1968). She was the mother of Elin Ørjasæter.
Career Ørjasæter graduated as cand.mag. from the University of Oslo in 1957. From 1957 to 1970 she was assigned as critic for the newspaper . She published the book in 1959. As a columnist for the newspaper , she wrote about children's programs in radio and television in the regular column . From 1971 to 1977 she was literary critic for , responsible for children's and young adult literature.
In 1976, she issued the book , treating challenges with children with disabilities, based on experience with her oldest son who had been diagnosed as autistic. In 1978, she wrote the book , and in 1981 the book , jointly with Barbro Sæterdal. In 1981 she also wrote a work for UNESCO, The Role of Children's Books on Integrating Handicapped Children into Everyday Life, as well as the main chapter in . She was awarded the honorary prize Askeladden from the institution Norsk Barneforum in 1981.
Her 1985 book was followed by a biography of Sigrid Undset, , which also earned her the Brage Prize in the category general literature in 1993. A follow-up book, , came in 1996. She contributed to the work , writing about children's literature up to 1980. In 2000, she wrote the biography , jointly with her husband Jo Ørjasæter. She wrote the novel in 2001. In 2005, she published . In 2009, she published the book . In her last book, , which was issued in 2024 when she was 97 years old, she reflected on getting older, on literature, and on time that had passed.
A lecturer at Statens spesiallærerhøgskole from 1977, she was appointed professor at the University of Oslo from 1991 to 1993. She was a board member of the publishing house Aschehoug from 1982 to 1996, and was member of the editorial group of the magazine Gymnadenia from 1997 to 2003.
Ørjasæter died on 25 March 2026, her 99th birthday.
Selected works Med barn i teater, 1959 Massemediene og barneboken, 1971 Boka om Dag Tore, 1976 Barn og bøker, 1978 Barn, kultur, kreativitet (with Barbro Sætersdal), 1981 The Role of Children’s Books in Integrating Handicapped Children into Everyday Life, 1981 "Barne- og ungdomslitteraturen fram til vår egen tid", in Den norske barnelitteraturen gjennom 200 år, 1981 Møte med Tove Jansson, 1985 Menneskenes hjerter. Sigrid Undset – en livshistorie, 1993 Sigrid Undset og Roma, 1996 "Den norske barnelitteraturen fram til 1980", in Norges Litteraturhistorie, volume 7, 1997 Nini Roll Anker, en kvinne i tiden (with Jo Ørjasæter), 2000 En borgerlig pike, 2001 Inn i barndomslandet. Selma Lagerlöf – Tove Jansson – Sigrid Undset, 2005 Dagen og dagene, 2009 Menneskenes hjerter, 2011 Den yngste. En Legende, 2012 Kjærligheten har sitt eget språk. En mors fortelling, 2017 Stadig fortsetter jeg å leve, 2024
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