After his final exams at Nordstrand school in Aker during 1941, he studied philology at the University of Oslo, graduating cand.philol.
[2] He wrote 44 novels and short story collections, almost a new year, besides radio plays and numerous articles.
Besides novels and short story collections, he wrote a series of radio plays for Radioteatret.
He wrote numerous books, mostly novels, but also a number of lectures and radio dramas.
[3] Terje Stigen received the Gyldendal's Endowment (Gyldendalprisen) in 1954, the Riksmål Society Literature Prize (Riksmålsprisen) in 1957 and the Norwegian Booksellers' Prize (Bokhandlerprisen) in 1963.