The Nordic Council Literature Prize Nominees — Faroe Islands: Beinir Bergsson & Randi Ward

See a discussion with Faroese author Beinir Bergsson on his nomination for the 2022 Nordic Council Literary Prize, moderated by translator Randi Ward! 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. This year’s nominee from the Faroe Islands, Beinir Bergsson’s poetry collection "Sólgarðurin" (Forlagið Eksil, 2021) follows his debut "Tann lítli drongurin og beinagrindin," which portrays the loss of a parent, the poet-self”s father. In his follow-up collection, the poet is now preoccupied with closeness, intimacy and sexuality: specifically, between the bodies of two boys. Set primarily in two locations, the bed in a bedroom and the grandmother’s garden, "Sólgarðurin" has been described by Bergsson as both a concrete physical space and an abstract mental space. In this talk held virtually from Scandinavia House Online on October 11, Bergsson discussed the collection with translator Randi Ward, a 2021 ASF Translation Prizewinner for her translation from Faroese of Kim Simonsen’s 2013 poetry collection "Hvat hjálpir einum menniskja at vakna ein morgun hesumegin hetta áratúsundið" (What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium). Learn more about programming at Scandinavia House at www.scandinaviahouse.org #literature #faroeislands #booktalk