On September 29, Scandinavia House begins a special fall series of panels, Nordic Authors You Should Know, by focusing on Danish literature with Shadi Angelina Bazeghi, Jonas Eika, Maja Lee Langvad, Dorthe Nors, and Ursula Andkjær Olsen, moderated by author and translator Katrine Øgaard Jensen. The event will begin with short readings of each of the authors’ work in both English and in Danish, followed by interviews with the authors and a conversation on Danish literature today.
Please send audience questions ahead of the discussion to info@amscan.org. Select questions will be chosen for a Q&A following the conversation. Registration is required; please sign up at the link above.
The program will be presented live and will later be available to stream from YouTube and Facebook. Nordic Authors You Should Know will continue with more events throughout the fall.
Media support for the series is provide by the journal Europe Now, published by the Council for European Studies at Columbia University.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Shadi Angelina Bazeghi is a poet and translator. A former Astronomy major at the University of Copenhagen, she graduated from The Danish Academy of Creative Writing in 2007. Her debut poetry collection Vingeslag (Wingbeats) was published in Denmark in 2015. She has since published two volumes of poetry in Danish translation, Kun stemmen bliver tilbage (Only the Voice Remains) by Forugh Farrokzhad and Der er ingen ærlige digte om døde kvinder (There Are No Honest Poems About Dead Women) by Audre Lorde. In addition, she serves as co-editor of the Nordic literary magazine Kritiker. Bazeghi’s second poetry collection FLOWMATIC, as well as a selection of essays from Sister Outsider by Lorde in Bazeghi’s translation, are forthcoming in Denmark in 2020.
Jonas Eika made his debut in 2015 with the novel Lageret Huset Marie (Marie House Warehouse), which was awarded the Bodil og Jørgen Munch-Christensen’s Prize for emerging Danish writers in 2016. In 2018 his collection Efter Solen (After the Sun) was published. In October 2019 Eika was awarded the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Prize for After the Sun.
Maja Lee Langvad (b. 1980, Seoul) is a writer and translator who lives in Copenhagen. She is the author of several books including Find Holger Danske (Find Holger Dane) and HUN ER VRED – Et vidnesbyrd om transnational adoption (SHE IS ANGRY – A testimony of transnational adoption). Her books explore themes such as transnational adoption, national identity, racism, kinship, and the act of writing. She has translated Fragebogen (”Questionnaires”) by the Swiss author Max Frisch into Danish. Together with her colleague Kristina Nya Glaffey she is currently translating Baby Precious Always Shines by the American author Gertrude Stein and her partner Alice B. Toklas. She is the co-editor of the Nordic literary magazine Kritiker. Website: leelangvad.dk
Dorthe Nors is one of the most original voices of contemporary Danish letters. She has written two celebrated short story collections, Karate Chop and Wild Swims, as well as one novella and five novels, including the most recent: Mirror, Shoulder, Signal (2016), which was a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize 2017. Nors’s short stories have appeared in countless publications, including Harper’s Magazine, Boston Review, AGNI, and Guernica. She is the first Danish writer to ever have a story published in The New Yorker. In 2011, she was awarded the Danish Arts Agency’s Three Year Grant for “her unusual and extraordinary talent.” In 2014, her story collection Karate Chop won the prestigious P.O. Enquist Literary Prize. Nors’s latest novel, Mirror, Shoulder, Signal, was published to rave reviews in 2016. Mirror, Shoulder, Signal was a finalist for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. Nors’s latest short story collection, Wild Swims, was published by Gyldendal in August 2018 and will be published in 2021 by Graywolf.
Ursula Andkjær Olsen made her literary debut in 2000 and has since published nine collections of poetry and one novel, in addition to several dramatic texts and libretti for operas such as Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s Sol går op, sol går ned, and composer Peter Bruun’s Miki Alone, which was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2008. Olsen has received numerous awards for her work, including the Danish Arts Foundation’s Award of Distinction in 2017, the 2012 Montanaprisen award for Det 3. årtusindes hjerte (Third-Millennium Heart, Broken Dimanche Press/Action Books 2017), and the 2015 Danish Critics Prize for Literature for Udgående fartøj (Outgoing Vessel, Action Books 2021). Since 2019, Olsen has served as head of The Danish Academy of Creative Writing. Her latest poetry collection, Mit Smykkeskrin (My Jewel Box), was published by Gyldendal in January 2020.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Katrine Øgaard Jensen is a writer and translator from the Danish. She is the recipient of several fellowships and awards, including the 2018 National Translation Award in Poetry for her translation of Ursula Andkjær Olsen’s book-length poem Third-Millennium Heart (Broken Dimanche Press/Action Books 2017). A founding editor of EuropeNow, she has served as a judge for several international literary awards, including the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation and the Best Translated Book Awards.
Her translation of Ursula Andkjær Olsen’s Outgoing Vessel, a sequel to Third-Millennium Heart, is forthcoming from Action Books in February 2021. She teaches in the School of the Arts MFA Writing Program at Columbia University, where she currently serves as Acting Director of LTAC (Literary Translation at Columbia).