Dennis Nils Drogseth was born in Brooklyn, NY, and grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, and Woodstock, New York. His family, divided between Norway, on his father’s side, and Alabama on his mother’s side, facilitated many interesting visits and discussions that triggered a balanced interest in Europe and the United States. Dennis also lived for a year in Concepción, Chile as a high school exchange student. He graduated from Yale with a degree in Chinese Studies and is conversant in Norwegian, French, Spanish, German, Chinese (Mandarin), and Russian. He has been widely published in art magazines with interviews and reviews, and in high technology circles (magazines, blogs, and a book) with pioneering research in AI platforms and the impacts of technology on user experience. As a novelist, Dennis seeks to bring our inner lives together with external realities in ways that shed light on our history, politics, and culture.
Dennis is married with two grown children. “Marriage and being a father have made me care more about the world I live in. And I believe that this, in turn, has also helped me to become a better writer.”
The author ran a poetry workshop at Green Haven prison in Beekman, New York, in the 1970s, which provided the foundation for his one non-fiction work, From Another World. The experience also became a source of inspiration for committing to a life of writing against sometimes challenging odds. Another life-changing experience was the loss of his best friend in Chile during Augusto Pinochet’s reign of terror. The complex interweaving of emotions surrounding this loss is examined through a fairytale-like confrontation with the devil in Finding Dimitri.
Along with fiction, non-fiction, and numerous poems, the author has also written two musicals (book and lyrics) and two full-length plays. His love of theater and the rhythms of the spoken word are evident in his fiction, as well.
According to Dennis, “As a group, my readers are interested in ideas, like adventure and surprise, and like to laugh (or sometimes cry). This is so whether they are executives in high-tech, long-time readers looking for something different, or just out of college and interested in fresh perspectives on our world, our politics, and our human condition.”