Nordic Council Literary Prize Nominees — Denmark: Solvej Balle, Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild & Tore Leifer

See a discussion with Danish authors Solvej Balle and Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild on their nominations for the 2022 Nordic Council Literary Prize! Awarded since 1962 alongside other prizes from the Nordic Council in music, film, and environment, the Literature Prize is selected annually for a work of fiction (poetry, prose, or drama) written in one of the Nordic languages. Created to generated greater interest in the sense of Nordic cultural community and to recognize unique artistic endeavors, each year’s prize is selected by the Nordic Adjudication Committee, made up of two members from each of the Nordic nations. In this panel held virtually from Scandinavia House Online on September 27, the nominees discussed their work with Tore Leifer (anchor, Kulturen) as moderator. Danish author Solvej Balle has this year been nominated for her large-scale prose work Om udregning af rumfang (On the Calculation of Volume, not translated into English), the third of a seven-volume planned series about her protagonist Tara Selter’s dislocation from time, in which she no longer experiences the changes of weeks, months, or seasons. Also nominated from Denmark, Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild’s Adam i paradis (Adam in Paradise, not translated into English) is a deeply insightful portrait of the painter Kristian Zahrtmann (1843-1917). Learn more about programming at Scandinavia House at www.scandinaviahouse.org #literature #nordic #denmark