Ottar Grepstad is 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...

 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...

 writer.

He was born in Øyer

Øyer

Øyer is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tingberg....

. In the 1970s he was the leader of the Young Liberals of Norway for a period. From 1984 to 1988 he edited the periodical Syn og Segn

Syn og Segn

Syn og Segn is a Norwegian cultural and political magazine. It was founded in 1894, and Rasmus Flo and Arne Garborg were the magazine's first editors....

. He worked in Det Norske Samlaget

Det Norske Samlaget

Det Norske Samlaget is a Norwegian publishing house founded on 24 March 1868 with the aim to promote and publish books in Landsmål, now known as Nynorsk....

 for many years, and has been manager for Noregs Mållag

Noregs Mållag

Noregs Mållag is the main organisation for Norwegian Nynorsk , one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language. In the Norwegian language struggle, it advocates the use of Nynorsk...

. In 1999 he became the leader of the Ivar Aasen Centre in Ørsta

Ørsta

is a village and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region of Western Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ørsta...

. This centre is owned by Nynorsk kultursentrum; which is led by Grepstad as well. From 1 January 2005 he has been a member of the Arts Council Norway, and from 2006 to 2010 he has been a board member of the Norwegian Language Council

Norwegian Language Council

The Norwegian Language Council was the regulation authority for the Norwegian language. It has been superseded by The Language Council of Norway .The council had 38 members, and created lists of acceptable word forms...

. He left the Arts Council in late 2009.

In 1997 he released the book Det litterære skattkammer. Sakprosaens teori og retorikk, which was claimed to be the "world's first theoretical book about prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

". In 1999 he was awarded the Norwegian Language Prize by the Norwegian Language Council

Norwegian Language Council

The Norwegian Language Council was the regulation authority for the Norwegian language. It has been superseded by The Language Council of Norway .The council had 38 members, and created lists of acceptable word forms...

. In 2006 he released Viljen til språk. Ei nynorsk kulturhistorie and in 2010 Avisene som utvida Noreg. Nynorskpressa 1850-2010.

He resides in Volda

Volda

Volda is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Volda. The municipality is located about south of the city of Ålesund.-General information:...

.