Publishers, translators and organisers can apply for grants to translate, publish and promote Faroese literature on the international market.
Publishers can apply for grants for translation and production from Faroese into another language. Grants are primarily available for translation of works already published by a Faroese publisher.
The application must be submitted by a publisher and the publisher must have a contract with the Faroese publisher and a translator.
In its assessment the grant committee will prioritise contemporary works and translations made directly from Faroese.
Grants are paid on publication.
Translators can apply for a grant of DKK 3000 for a sample translation (of at least 8 pages of a chosen work) without prior contract with a publisher. In its evaluation, the committee will prioritise contemporary works and translations made directly from Faroese.
Organisers can apply for support for literary events and projects that focus on Faroese literature and authors. FarLit’s support will normally cover airline tickets (economy class) only. No fixed application deadline, but at least one month before the event is to take place.
The digital application form is available at www.farlit.fo
Application forms and further information is available at www.farlit.fo
Any further questions can be directed to the literary coordinator at farlit@farlit.fo Application deadlines: 1 February 1 June and 1 October
Jógvan Isaksen:
THE REST HOME
Journalist Hannis Martinsson is in the rest home after having surgery. When he is told that a man with ties to the bombing of the Faroese Parliament in September 1945 was killed in the same building, a dangerous game begins.
Hannis Martinsson is the main character in Hvíldarheimið, but William Hammer makes an appearance too.
Jógvan Isaksen (1950) is best known for his crime novels set in the Faroe Islands. He holds an MA in Nordic Literature and has taught Faroese literature and language at the University of Copenhagen since 1986. Jógvan has published a range of books about Faroese literature, but he became a household name when his first crime novel of many was published in 1990. The television
series TROM, based on four of the crime novels about investigative journalist Hannis Martinsson, was filmed on the Faroe Islands and is available on BBC iPlayer. The new novel Hvíldarheimið follows detective Hannis Martinsson. Jógvan Isaksen’s works have been translated into Danish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian and English.
Title: Hvíldarheimið
Pages: 306
Publisher: Marselius
Year of publication: 2023
English sample available
THE REST HOME
Translated by Lindy Falk van Rooyen
NOVEMBER 1945
Dusk outside. Near-dark in the room. Just a patch of light from a nightstand by the door. He had just regained consciousness. At first, he had no idea where he was. Then he gagged on the cloth that cut into the corners of mouth, and it all came flooding back. The cloth was tied behind his head. Also his arms and legs were secured with leather straps. Now he remembered all of it. He was in the Rest Home. He had been there for almost two weeks. And they had tied him up before. Many times. Because of the epileptic fits, they said.
Ever since he was a boy, he’d suffered the epileptic seizures – or ‘the falling sickness’ – as an old woman from their village once called it. Back then, long into early adulthood, months could pass between the fits. But now, over the last month, it happened often. Extremely often. At the hospital they said it was his nerves: a nervous reaction to his environment. They had asked him if something had happened. Had he experienced some kind of psychological shock? He said that nothing came to mind. He said that perhaps it was fate playing games with him. So they prescribed peace and quiet and transferred him to the Rest Home.
There was indeed plenty of peace and quiet at the Rest Home. It was situated on the edge of the Plantation, right next to the football field – if you were inclined to watch a game – or the rows of barracks that the Englishmen built right after their occupation of the Faroe Isles. It was a peaceful environment in every way. And the staff only wanted what was best for you. But unfortunately, the seizures were not getting any better, or any less. On the contrary. He overheard the supervising doctor talking to the matron: The doctor said he was beginning to doubt that rest had any beneficial effect on the patient. Perhaps they ought to transfer him back to the hospital? At least there they could find out what was causing the seizures. He knew perfectly well what had caused the seizures.
But of course he could tell neither the staff at the hospital nor the personnel at the Rest Home. He had given them his word not to talk about it. He doubted that anyone would believe him. He saw how they looked at him, how they exchanged glances amongst themselves every time they did. And it was true what they said: he was a deserter, a weakling. They should restrain him. And he knew what they were capable of; these people would not hesitate to kill whoever betrayed them. He had sworn not to tell a soul. And he never would. But he also knew he had built the bomb for them. It was stupid. The dumbest thing he’d ever done. But how could he have known that they meant to murder one of the most prominent politicians in the country? His nerves got worse with every passing day. Then the seizures began. So they tied him up. So he wouldn’t do himself any harm when the fits racked his body.
The door opened softly and a figure appeared in the dim light. He was lying on his back with no pillow, so he couldn’t see who had come to visit him. The person entered the room and moved towards the bed, blocking the nightstand with his torso, so it wasn’t until the figure was up close that he saw the ski mask. Only the eyes were visible. He knew those eyes. Alarm signals went off in his brain, he tried to scream for help, but with the gag in his mouth he could only produce a hoarse rattle in his throat. He yanked on the leather straps. But it was useless. He felt a sting in the pit of his elbow, then everything went black.
Eyðun Klakkstein:
DECEIT
Lygn is a thriller with pace, humour and suspense.
It is the day after the sudden death of Sára Emmudóttir’s brother. She receives a handwritten letter with the message: “He didn’t do it”. Sára now has to search the past she escaped. She gets out the box of old pictures she had never intended to look at again. Her search leads her to a rock concert in Tórshavn twenty years ago, where a young woman died at the afterparty.
Gallery owner Jón Amos gets an unusual assignment from a mysterious person. He is asked to find a distinctive artwork, which no one has heard of. Suddenly his life is turned on its head by a horrible incident. Sára Emmudóttir and Jón Amos find themselves having to work together after a series of terrifying events affect them personally. To find the truth, they first have to unmask ruthless lies.
Eyðun Klakstein (1972) is a journalist by profession and has worked in the media for over 25 years as a journalist, editor and host in radio and tv. In 2021 he made his debut as an author with the crime novel,
List, which received good reviews and was amongst the best-selling novels that year. Lygn is the second book in the series. The rights to Lygn have been sold to Iceland.
Title: Lygn
Pages: 248
Publisher: Viva
Year of publication: 2023
English sample available
DECEIT
Translated by Lindy Falk van Rooyen
“Your brother is dead,” Júst said in a hoarse voice.
“Dead? How?” Sára asked, as a tremor shot down her spine.
Sára had tried, several times, to contact her brother when she came back to the Faroes. But it was hopeless. Poli would rather drink and take drugs than spend time with his sister. He wasn’t interested in the fact that she was trying to help him. She had tried to tell him to take better care of himself. In the end, she simply gave up. The last she knew, Poli was living in a basement somewhere in Tórshavn. That was two years ago.
“Those bloody doctors killed him!” her father said bitterly, as he glared at Sára.
“What ... what was wrong with him?” she said.
“Poli went to the hospital because he wasn’t feeling well. He died, without me even knowing. The hospital called me this morning.”
Poli’s death must have been caused by his non-stop drinking, Sára thought. All those bloody drugs he was doing. Poli had lived hard and fast for twenty years. He started drinking and using drugs when he was in his teens. And then there was that horrible incident in 2003, which destroyed so many things in his life. It isn’t easy being a young man, no more than 20 years old, with everyone’s eyes on you constantly because they know you’ve done something terrible. Nobody can cope with that alone for long. She couldn’t bear to think about it. Poli had worked as a carpenter until he was in his mid-thirties. But then he started skipping work. It happened more and more often. Finally, he got sacked. After that, he was high all the time: he drank, took drugs and abused whatever medication he could get his hands on. The last time Sára saw him, Poli’s body and personality seemed severely affected by substance abuse. Her brother was unreasonable, he spurned her attempts to help. And he said that he felt persecuted by friends and authorities alike. In one of their last conversations, Poli even claimed that the Faroese fishery association had him under illegal surveillance. Sára didn’t get a chance to ask why the association should have such a particular interest in his life. It didn’t make sense. But Poli said that people from the fishery association had filmed him in secret when he was out and about. They even had people watching him when he was home, he said. Sára only knew this for sure: Poli needed to stop drinking. And he needed psychological help. But Poli refused, and therapy never came up for discussion. If she merely suggested something of the kind, her brother would explode in fury. She barely recognised him. He became progressively mean to her, even aggressive and violent sometimes. In the end, she couldn’t bear to be around her brother anymore. Since then, she’d only caught occasional glimpses of her brother, as he wandered through the streets of Tórshavn. And every time she saw him, he looked worse than the time before.
“What happened at the hospital?” Sára asked.
Ingun Christensen::
LOST ROOTS
Vilstar røtur is the story of Báralda, a journalist who upon her mother’s death inherits a house from a grandmother she had never heard of. She decides to attempt to untangle her family history, but it is no easy quest as most of the people who might be able tell her anything are long gone. Slowly her gut and grit lead her to uncover the complexities of six generations of class differences, secrets and violence. The novel is told by three female voices spanning the beginning of the 20th century up until 2021. Lost Roots is a gripping story brimming with drama, thrill, romance and intricate characters.
Title: Vilstar røtur
Pages: 290
Publisher: H.N. Jacobsens Bókahandil
Ingun Christensen (1968) has written children’s and YA books and a collection of short stories. She was raised in a bilingual family in the Faroese village Hósvík. She is a trained correspondent in English and German and holds a BA/ED in English. Ingun Christensen has written poetry since she was a young girl. Vilstar røtur is her first novel for adults.
Year of publication: 2023
English sample available
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK:
LOST ROOTS
Translated by Marita Thomsen
Prelude - June 2018
Time had changed Berg’s shop. The sash windows had been displaced by big panes, and the building had grown. The staircase was gone. The door with the curious porthole had turned into a pair of greedy glass doors, they gobbled up customers automatically on approach. The paved patio, where young and old used to meet, had been tarmacked over into a parking lot, which didn’t invite anyone to linger for a chat.
The peat trail that ran from the village past the house was still the same, though you could now drive to a turnaround about half a kilometre from the house. The driver asked if she would like him to accompany her. She shook her head. She had her walking stick, it would be fine.
The path down to the house was overgrown, as it had been when she returned more than forty years ago. The house looked tired and worn. Much the way she did. She turned in the doorway to look out across the garden. The pine tree had grown big and strong with crooked branches.
The little one came while she was picking a bouquet. She instantly noticed the girl’s eyes. They opened the floodgates of memory. Her gaze drifted off, until the child asked why she was crying.
A few hours later the taxi came to pick her up. Without a word she said her goodbyes to it all. Including the cemetery, where they had all been all laid to rest. Where he rested. It didn’t feel as heavy as it used to. She would be joining them before long.
As they reached the mountain pass, she asked the driver to stop so she could take in the farm from above. Three buildings arranged into a u-shape. The main building in the middle. Stable to the right and outhouse with a slatted store to the left. Her eyes roamed of their own accord over to the river. Her river. Her bridge, though even that had changed. The stone bridge collapsed in an autumn storm many moons ago.
That was where it all began. There on the bridge by Fornagarður Farm. Or, come to think of it, hadn’t it all really started with Agnas?
Agnas 1904-1920
Agnas never imagined that she would move away from the village. Everything she wanted was right here. Líðarstein Farm, the mountains, bay, Lake Hagavatn, where they swam every summer, and Heiðrikur. He had been a part of everything ever since she could remember. He came every day with his mother to milk the cows and tend to other farm work.
Sólrún Michelsen:
SÁRA MALENA –THE LAST WITCH IN THE FAROE ISLANDS
Sára Malena was an unruly child. So strange and wild that her father nearly took her life when she was 4 years old. Later she was accused of practicing witchcraft, and people feared and shunned her. Sára Malena was isolated, excluded, abused and never experienced love. Most of the stories about her insinuate that she knew more than mere mortals.
How does a woman survive in a small village where people are convinced that she sinks boats and condemns men to mysterious deaths by her words alone? When widows and fatherless children are left mired in grief, bitterness and shock, and the tales of terror and despair run wild from island to island.
There are many accounts of Sára Malena’s peculiar fate. She lived on the island of Skúgvoy in the 19th century where superstition and narrow-mindedness were ubiquitous.
Sólrún Michelsen (1948) made her debut in 1994 with a short story collection for children, and has published generously since for children and adults in different genres. She has won several Faroese awards and was nominated for the Nordic
Council Literature Prize in 2015. Sólrún’s books have been published in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Ethiopia and the UK. Sára Malena is her latest novel.
Title:Sára Malena
Pages: 200
Publisher: Sprotin
Year of publication: 2023
English sample available
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK:
SÁRA MALENA
Translated by Marita Thomsen
Sára Malena Guttormsdatter didn’t look like much, poor mite, when she came into this world so weak and scrawny that she couldn’t even muster a wail. A faint whimper was all. Her father, Guttormur í Heimaragarði, son of Sára í Heimaragarði and Mikkjal á Sondum of Sandur village, and her mother Billa, daughter of Mikkjal í Dímun, therefore thought it prudent to have the girl baptised at home as quickly as possible. This happened three days later. They were, as was only natural, probably worried about her. Her baptism was registered at Skúvoy Church on January 13th 1833. So that would have been the first time the priest visited the island that winter.
Billa and Guttormur’s first two babes were stillborn. By now they had lost hope of becoming parents, both were past forty, so Billa was overjoyed when she bore the little girl. And they never did get more than this one, who was named after her grandmother.
Sára Malena was a difficult child. The trouble with her being so weak that she could barely cry passed. She wailed often and loudly and was frequently ill. She allowed her parents no sleep and Billa’s milk soon dried up.
‘Probably best if that runt went the same way as the other two, she’s just a lass anyway,’ Guttormur muttered, he had desperately wanted a boy.
‘Lord help us what with that prattle,’ Billa snapped as she was sat there trying to keep the infant alive by forcing a little cow’s milk into her.
And Billa did manage to pay death’s ransom, in sweat and tears, and the girl pulled through. Gradually little Sára Malena grew stronger, though she was slow to walk. Her speech, however, was an entirely different story. She was chatting away fluently at only two, as she tottered across the floor repeating everything her parents, and anyone who dropped by, would say. The girl soon noticed variations in how her parents responded to words. They would smile at some and harrumph at others. Especially the swearwords, which she repeated after certain men had dropped in, would draw her parents’ attention, but not the good kind.
‘Never in my days have I seen a child so young behave like that girl,’ Guttormur said, ‘must be the Dímun heritage that.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with her mind. She’s cleverer than most for her age,’ Billa would contend when Guttormur lost patience with the child.
‘The mischief’s probably just down to her being so advanced. She’ll soon grow out of it.’
But there was no indication of improvement as Sára Malena grew. She didn’t attach to her parents, caused trouble where she could, shouted, bit and swore, leaving her parents distraught.
Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen:
UPRIGHT
Upp eftir enda is a short story collection about people who have come to a standstill. They are locked down by prejudice and an environment where progress seems stranded. It is a portrait of those who are rarely heard, and who very few can understand. Each with faults and loneliness in a society where people know each other, pry and are distrustful. Where it is difficult to challenge norms and prejudice.
The author gives us a peek inside the everyday life of these people who have capsized somehow. They live with broken dreams, failed plans and can’t find their way out of absurdity, loneliness in twosomeness and estranged love.
Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen (1969) is an author and primary school teacher. He has written 20 poetry collections, of which the first was published in 1994. Between 1998 and 2000 he attended the writers’ academy Forfatterskolen in Copenhagen. Oddfríður has received the Faroese M.A. Jacobsen’s Award twice; for fiction in 2000 for his poetry collection Rás sár and for cul-
ture in 2009 for his work as one of the editors of the literary periodical Vencil. In 2018 Oddfríður won the Faroese Book Shop Association’s novel competition for his novel Ikki fyrr enn tá, which was nominated for the 2020 Nordic Council Literature Prize and has been published in Hungary.
Title: Upp eftir enda
Pages: 132
Publisher: Sprotin
Year of publication: 2023
English sample available
Translated by Súsanna Ingvardsdóttir
The Neighbour
I kneel on the bed, lay my elbows on the windowsill and look towards the neighbour’s house. I see a container standing in the garden. It wasn’t there yesterday. Suddenly it starts raining, and I have clothes hanging on the drying rack. I hurry out to collect the clothes and throw them on the bed even though they are a little damp. A white container with rusty ends. Not one of the small ones, but a large white container.
What is he doing now?
The day before yesterday I lay in bed watching a documentary on Netflix. Once the film ended, I got up. I open the curtains and notice the neighbour casting a block of some sort, about the height and size of five stacked beer crates. All sides of the mould are white. I tried to guess what it was that he was casting, and why he was casting. The mixer stood rotating on the road.
Everything seems normal. And yet. During the four months I have lived here, I have tried to figure out who this neighbour is. I have been able to gather together some desultory bits of information about him. He is an older man. About 70 years or more. He always wears blue jeans, a chequered shirt, braces, a brown jacket, and a grey six-pence cap. He is married to an Asian, or is she from South America? They say different things. It’s beside the point. There are several red artificial roses in the kitchen window, which indicates that the woman of the house is not Faroese. He
is always busy in the garden, or whatever you would call the space around their house. The whole area is excavated and an RV stands in the eastern side of the garden. If we lived in the US the police would probably have been a regular guest. It looks like the amphetamine laboratory of a physics and chemistry teacher, the one who makes methamphetamines, or whatever it is he does. What was that show called? I always forget the titles. Never mind. During these four months that I have lived here I have never seen any light inside the RV. It is always dark. The RV used to be white but now it is covered in a layer of green vegetation or whatever it is. There is an antenna on the roof. God knows what that is used for. I have never seen the neighbour inside of it. But I have only lived here for a short time, so what do I know? The neighbour has lived here God knows how long. Someone told me that he used to work as an engineer in Iceland, or was it Greenland, no, maybe it was Svalbard. An old friend that I met last week at a funeral told me that when he lived on this street as a kid, the neighbour also lived here. We are the same age, my friend and I, so that odd rod must have lived here for about 40 or so years. Judging by the look of his house he has not done much to it these past 40 years, even though he is always working on something. The balcony hangs and creaks and the cladding of the house is made up of plastic, iron and wood but is all white. There is something interesting behind that cellar door and inside that container.
Nansý Sunadóttir:
I SHARPEN MY KNIFE, I’M COMING HOME
Eg hvessi mær knívin, eg komi heim deals with the topics of gender, self harm and youth. The knife is the main image and the poet aspires to write about self harm in a way not seen before in Faroese literature – with beauty. Where is the beauty in cuts on the poetic self’s thighs and wrists? The beauty is in the words that finally are released and in the comfort. The poems are a quiet yet stubborn protest. Though the poetic self feels broken and alone, there is still hope.
Nansý Sunadóttir (1997) holds a bachelor in Faroese language and literature and works at the national library of the Faroe Islands. She has previously published poems in
literary magazine Varðin Eg hvessi mær knívin, eg komi heim is her debut poetry collection.
Title: Eg hvessi mær knívin, eg komi heim
Pages: 64
Publisher: Ungu Føroyar
Year of publication: 2024
English sample available
I SHARPEN MY KNIFE, I’M COMING HOME
Translated by Matthew Landrum and Rakul í Gerðinum
forsaken
I stand on the quayside watching the hawser ropes being pulled up and the ship slowly leaving shore
/
I live in a pink world walls covered with knotty paneling, painted baby pink
I live in a pink world with curtains made of pink cloth striped pink, light pink, dark pink I live in a pink world
I’m seven years old snuggling beneath a pink blanket with embroidered green leaves
I hate pink I whisper I live in a pink world
I imagine that my walls are blue that my bed is a racecar bed
I hate pink I whisper
/ I felt like the sapling my neighbor planted last year forced into the soil, forced to take root where my neighbor said only to be pulled out again when he lost his patience I felt like the grass my neighbor dilligently sowed
forced to grow faster forced to grow greener only to cut it when it got too tall
I felt like the hope that grew and grew then suddenly burst
/ the gate’s hinges creak in the quiet I rock slowly as if I were five and swinging on the white gate pushing off with my right foot and feeling the gate crash against the fence then slam shut
I hear the gate squeaking and remember fat raindrops, carried on the wind falling straight down on my head and running slowly down my face I remember catching them on my tongue
I see the worn gate and remember my little fingers scraping the paint off as my curls fluttered in the wind
-
He can feel me him drawing him in and is surprised
I smile and show him my home
Tóroddur Poulsen:
ALL SMELLS DISTURB MY SENSE OF PLACE
Allir luktir örkymla mín staðarsans is a very abstract collection. Tóroddur masters the art of creating surreal images from dreams, but he also conjures strange visions from observations of everyday life like in the poem where rocks move in the dark when the stone fetcher comes sneaking. Stones have always been present in Tóroddur’s poems which often revolve around elements like mould, water and air but also wind, light and darkness. He also writes about smells and about smelling and sniffing and getting lost in one’s own smell.
Tóroddur Poulsen (1957) is a poet, musician and graphic artist. His versatile artistic approach is reflected in his poetry, which has a strong audio-visual expression. He made his debut in 1984 with the poetry collection Botnfall, and has since been very productive in all three art forms. It is safe to say that all his works have a provoca-
tive and humorous style, which he executes with acute awareness of artistic manifestation. Tóroddur is a two-time winner of Mentanarvirðisløn M.A. Jacobsens (1992, 2010) and six-time nominee to the Nordic Council’s Literature Award (1996, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2014).
Title: Allir luktir örkymla mín staðarsans
Pages: 100
Publisher: Sprotin
Year of publication: 2024
English sample available
ALL SMELLS DISTURB MY SENSE OF PLACE
Translated by Matthew Landrum and Rannvá H. Glerfoss
I wish I’d arrived with the merry breeze but it didn’t follow me as far as this rock that won’t budge / what should i say to the dead what should i promise them or set right
I’ve no more life left to waste on the quiet life / technically i resembled a robot on this journey through the outline I sketched out for myself
I crossed out every word that might haved showed where I was /
it’s unbelievable said the woman across from me time stands still when you see a ghost that doesn’t want to be a ghost how do you know I don’t want to be a ghost I asked
I’m not talking about you but the woman reflected in the window behind your head she replied and stood there as the ghost in the window vanished / silence gave you words but you wouldn’t touch them then came a hand with a brush trying out all the tubes of paint except for the red one which was old and dried up
Vónbjørt Vang:
BLACK ORCHID FROM THE LOGS. 17 INSIGHTS IN THE AUTHOR’S WORKSHOP
Svørt orkidé is a poetry collection and photo book with collages by the author. In lyrical glimpses, essayistic parts, collages, poems, flashbacks, diary excerpts with references and quotes from the history of literature a mother describes her experience of a having son, who is struggling.
She attempts to use her writing to hold the grief and helplessness of being mother to a child, who is stumbling in life. She tries to find the words to describe the sense of grief, shame, struggle and weakness that arises from being a mother, but being unable to help.
Part of the book is collages, consisting of cut-outs from destroyed library books. It is a way to think and feel on paper, but also through and with paper.
Úr loggbókunum. 17 innlit í rithøvundaverkstaðið is an essay on writing. It offers open and honest insight into an author’s journey of writing, from taking her first fumbling steps to finally figuring out what she wants to write. The book can be read as an independent essay, but it also works as a companion to Svørt orkidé.
Vónbjørt Vang (1974) is an author, poet and librarian. She has studied comparative literature and holds a BA in creative writing. She has had short stories and poems published
in a variety of journals and anthologies. She has published two poetry collections, Millumlendingar from 2011 and Djúpini from 2017.
Title: Svørt Orkidé
Pages: 86
Publisher: Eksil
Year of publication: 2023
English sample available
Title: Úr loggbókunum
Pages: 70
Publisher: Eksil
Year of publication: 2023
BLACK ORCHID
Translated by Randi Ward
I fear my words they know so much more than I myself know they are aged containers full of meaning for the time being I am a mother who writes a mother who wilts words every night who writes every night to you from a body that used to be yours
that is to say: I write like a mother that is to say: to wake each morning in the ruins of towns burned to the ground while I slept the snow settled hid the words and reenchanted the disaster into a black flower
/ spring never came that year winter kept digging its clammy claws into everything that tried to grow
/ I rooted around in the wet earth with frozen fingers my child was pulled down into the underworld I planted the tulips some were black and down there’s where I tried searching for my son who went way down to rock bottom dragged through the dirt
/ long before the mountains existed I’d already written about them long
before you were a little bundle inside of me I’d long since written about you
/ I lie down in the grass a beetle walks across my cheek I see tulip sprouts peeking up through the dirt soon a black flower will bloom
Kim Simonsen:
THE BIOLOGICAL COMPOSITION OF A DROP OF SEAWATER IS REMINISCENT OF THE BLOOD IN MY VEINS
This poetry collection works with the ocean as an element. Thematically the speaker deals with his dead father, who has been a sailor his whole life and the ocean that is eating away the land, which simultaneously is our organic original home.
What is the philosophy of fish? The natural history of the three-spined stickleback? What is the human race’s position in regard to nature? Do mushrooms care for us, did the trees see us, when we were children? What stories do we tell about ourselves and those, we have lost?
In four parts the collection dissects everything that we touch and the joy of turning to the world, our skin, mites, viruses, and the whirlwind of bacteria, that is the biological foundation of every living thing.
The rights to the collection have been sold to Hungary and Macedonia.
Kim Simonsen (1970) is a Faroese writer and scholar. He completed his PhD in 2012 at the University of Roskilde. He is the founder and managing editor of Forlagið Eksil, a Faroese press that has published over 20 titles. In 2014, Simonsen won the M.A. Jacobsen Literature Award for his poetry collection Hvat
hjálpir einum menniskja at vakna ein morgun hesumegin hetta áratúsundið. Simonsen has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University and Stanford University, an associate professor at The University of Bergen, and is now a member of The University of Amsterdam’s faculty.
Title: Lívfrøðiliga samansetingin í einum dropa av havvatni minnir um blóðið í mínum æðrum
Pages: 66
Publisher: Verksmiðjan
Year of publication: 2023
English sample available
DROPA AV HAVVATNI MINNIR UM BLÓÐIÐ
THE BIOLOGICAL COMPOSITION OF A DROP OF SEAWATER IS REMINISCENT OF THE BLOOD IN MY VEINS
Translated by Randi Ward
My father died this morning; all his life he sailed the oceans of the world. Now the waves break as waves have broken wave upon wave. This is how the waves will embrace the shores of this land: everything eddying layers upon layers.
/ The shore is full of jellyfish. The question remains:
Have they decided to end their lives here today between beckoning anemones, limpets, and mussels. Is there not something spectral about them as they float slowly through the sea— as they are presently washed ashore, a violet, gelatinous materiality.
/ My cold hand touches the rain-soaked fence, it smells of earth here; I hear the wings of birds.
I think about insects, earthworms, viruses,
that the word darkness has a dark sound.
I am virus, I am weed, I am that which is mouldy.
I am one who knows that, if nothing else, all these will one day consume me just as the aphid and the killer slug devour the plant.
/ All water comes from the ocean. All water returns to the ocean. The first philosopher, Anaximander, said all that is dying returns to the element from which it came.
/
I see the paw prints of a cat and find a wounded robin in the snow; he looks up at me with his beady eyes as he bleeds.
I pick him up and try to warm him in the palm of my hand; he knows, I know, it’s over.
Helena Kannuberg & Lena Nicolajsen:
TOMORROW I GET TO PLAY WITH DADDY AGAIN
Í morgin fari eg aftur at spæla við babba is written by Helena Kannuberg and illustrated by Lena Nicolajsen. It is warm, hopeful and beautifully illustrated story about when parents fall ill. It is written from Ári’s perspective. Ári’s dad is sick and has to travel to Denmark for treatment at the hospital, and Ári’s mom goes with him. Meanwhile grandma comes to stay with Ári and his little sister. The wait is long and grandma is nice, but she is not mom or dad. When will they be back?
Title: Í morgin fari eg aftur at spæla við babba
Pages: 66
Publisher: BFL
Helena Kannuberg (1992) is a debut children’s book writer. She holds an MA in Faroese Language and literature and teaches at the University of the Faroe Islands.
Lena Nicolajsen (1970) is a Faroese illustrator based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She works as a freelance illustrator and independent designer with illustration, pattern design, comics and toy creatures for children.
Year of publication: 2024
English sample available
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK: Í MORGIN FARI EG AFTUR AT SPÆLA VIÐ BABBA
TOMORROW I GET TO PLAY WITH DADDY AGAIN
Translated by Marita Thomsen
This is me. My name is Ári and I love to play. Especially with daddy.
‘Wraaah!’ Daddy roars when he’s a monster and comes to tickle me.
‘Stop it daddy!’ I laugh. My sister Marin is giggling. Marin and I climb onto daddy’s back. We hold on tight, so we won’t fall off. It’s hard, because daddy is a big monster. And monsters don’t want any pesky kids on their backs.
‘Grrrrrr!’ The monster growls as it wakes from a deep slumber. ‘Who dares to wake me?’
Sometimes daddy and I play trains. Daddy is really good at building the tracks. The track twists left and right and winds up and down. Sometimes Marin gets to play along too. She loves it, but she’s not as good at it as I am.
‘Play tain?’
‘Play rain?’
‘No, play train!’
‘Nobody is allowed to tidy up the tracks,’ I say. Daddy says I can drive the train around the floor for as long as I like. That makes me happy. I go fetch cardboard boxes to build tunnels. Just like a proper track.
One day daddy starts to snore like a monster, while we play train. I laugh and jump up.
‘Marin, come sit on the monster!’ I shout. I climb on daddy’s back and hold on. The monster is about to wake up!
‘Grrrrr’ we growl. We know how to be monsters too.
‘Grrrr!’
‘Grrrr!’
But… nothing happens. The big monster just keeps snoring fast asleep.
‘What should I do now?’
‘Come on, daddy, wake up!’ I say, but daddy doesn’t answer. I tickle the soles of his feet, but that doesn’t help either. He’s sleeping like a log.
I start driving my train around daddy. Up and down, left and right.
When mummy comes in, I tell her that daddy is snoring on the floor.
‘He’s holding the train,’ I say. ‘But he just lies there snoring, even though he’s not even a monster. Mummy looks at me for a long while.
I can see her eyes go all shiny.
‘Come here sweet,’ she says, takes off her shoes and jumper and comes to sit on the floor. I crawl onto her lap. She hugs me and says:
‘Daddy is sick. He has an illness that makes him very very tired. And sad.’
‘Oh!’ I say. ‘Can I catch the sickness from him?’
‘No, sweetheart,’ mummy says. ‘It’s a strange illness that’s not contagious.’
‘But, he can’t play with me anymore?’ I ask. Mummy hugs me a little tighter.
‘Oh sweet! She says. ‘He still loves playing with you and Marin just as much as always.’
SELECTED WORKS: CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULTS
Bárður Oskarsson:
BOB
Bob is the third book in Bárður Oskarsson’s award winning series of picture books about Hilbert the dog and Bob the rabbit. Hilbert and Bob are known from The Tree (2017) and Hilbert (2020).
In this volume Bob has lost the carrot he just spent ages picking out at the supermarket. When Hilbert comes by he assures Bob there is nothing odd about losing your carrot, he himself loses stuff all the time. Maybe everything will be okay after all. Bob is a compact gem of Bárður Oskarssons unique illustrations and down-to-earth storytelling.
Bárður Oskarsson (1972) is an author and illustrator. He published his first book Dog, Cat and Mouse in 2004, which he wrote and illustrated. Oskarsson’s illustrations are unique, they resemble cartoons and clearly convey moods and atmospheres in subtle gestures and minute movements. His book The flat rabbit from 2011 has won him
several international literature prizes and has been translated into about 20 different languages. Oskarsson received the Nordic Council Children’s and Young People’s Literature Prize in 2018 for his book The Tree
The rights to Bob have been sold to the US and Denmark.
Title: Bob
Pages: 32
Publisher: BFL
Year of publication: 2024
English sample available
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK: BOB
BOB
Translated by Marita Thomsen
Every time Bob goes carrot shopping, he spends ages looking for a carrot that’s just right.
Bob doesn’t mind if it’s little wonky. But the colour has to be a lovely bright carroty orange. And even though it doesn’t have to be squeaky clean, it can’t be filthy either.
Finally, Bob inspects the carrot top.
He loves carrots with bushy green tops, they’re easier to carry.
/
When Bob has found the perfect carrot, he always holds it up to look at for a bit. And he says to himself:
‘I think I’m quite good a this.
Every time I go to the shop, I find exactly the right carrot.’
/ Bob was glad that he only had to find one carrot each time.
/ ‘Beep’
/ ‘The carrot!
Where did it go?!
It was here a minute ago.’
/
That very moment Hilbert, a dog Bob knew, came by. The funny thing about Hilbert was that he believed he could fly.
Bob was just standing there without his carrot. Then he said: ‘Hey, Hilbert, my carrot is gone.’
/
Bob told Hilbert all about how the carrot had suddenly vanished, about how strange that was, about how hard it was to find a carrot that was precisely the same bright carroty orange, and as good as that specific carrot.
/ Hilbert didn’t think it was very peculiar that the carrot was gone.
‘At my place things disappear all the time,’ he said.
/ Just then, as Hilbert was talking, their feet touched. It felt a little funny, and they stood there for a while, neither of them knew what to say. But they did both have rather big feet after all.
When animals with large feet are chatting, sometimes their feet happen to touch.
‘You’ve got quite big feet,’ Hilbert said.
‘Well, so do you,’ Bob replied.
/ When Bob headed back to the shop to buy a new carrot, Hilbert went along with him.
‘Maybe I can help you find a new carrot,’ Hilbert said, ‘and I can look after it too, so this one doesn’t disappear.’
‘Sure, you can come along, but I’m carrying the carrot,’ Bob said.
SELECTED WORKS: CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULTS
OMINOUS SEED - TÓRA 3
The Tóra Trilogy is captivating fantasy based on Faroese folklore. In this third book, Tóra finally learns who she really is and why her huldred powers are so strong. But getting there is not easy and she has a lot of questions. Has she really killed a girl? Headmaster Billa is gone, and Róar has taken over the school. Tóra expects to be kicked out of school any minute, and most people shun her. Fortunately she can rely on her friends in her quart, but what about mysterious Leiki? Tóra’s gifts grow stronger and stronger, but how long can she hold in the fire in her chest?
Elin Michelsen (1973) is an author and journalist in Faroese public service radio. As a child she was a regular in the fantasy section of the library, and in 2021 she debuted as an author with a fantasy novel
of her own called The Guarded Gift – the first in the Tóra trilogy. The Faded Field was the second and Ominous Seed is the last book in the trilogy about Tóra and her quest to find out who she is.
Title: Feigdarfræ
Pages: 438
Publisher: BFL
Year of publication: 2024
English sample available
Elin Michelsen:
OMINOUS SEED
Translated by Lindy Falk van Rooyen
A furious flurry of snow. White streaks that disintegrate instantly when they hit the windowpane. Engulfed in this vicious white whirl, Tóra stares into the dark void beyond. It is all she can do. She feels as if she is flying to the left, headlong into a blistering wind.
You are dead ...
Once in a while, the thought steals through the whiteness.
“Have you never wondered why no one is looking for you, Tóra?” Róar’s voice. In the studio at school. “No one is looking for you because you are dead, Tóra.”
You are dead. And a murderer ...
The voice belongs to Róar. It is his voice that tells her she is dead. His voice that says she has taken the life of another. The life of a fair-haired girl. His words have lodged in her brain. And they have hounded her ever since. Only the white can silence them; the blizzard drowns out his words, and whips them away like snowflakes. Tóra feels suspended in the dark room, gliding away from Huldra Glen, where the clouds descend and settle all around. She flees from Ronja and Róar, and the sombre mood that has crept into the walls, and now seeps into every fibre that lives there.
Her soul sweeps away from the Huldra Glen, but her body is here, in this room. Something is preventing her from slipping out the door, never to return.
Three people have become the only family she has ever known. A family that believes there is still something good inside of Tóra, even though she believes the exact opposite. People who breathe life into her – to the extent you can revive someone suspended in death. They were her sentries when all hell broke loose around her. They are the reason she survived.
No one, including those in power, thought Tóra would survive. Everyone had expected her to snap like a twig – and she almost did – when word of her crime got out. And Tóra went to school as usual, even though she had killed a girl. The thought gnawed at her brain and blotted out everything else. At night, guilt sheathes her mind and crawls into her dreams.
Her fair hair, walls crumbling down, army boots covered in grit and blood.
The images are not coherent, without rhyme or reason, but they are always the same. Murderer!
SELECTED WORKS: CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULTS
Rakel Helmsdal:
THE SOUND OF THUNDER
One house, four families and a night that changes everything. When fourteen-year-old Aurora invites everyone in the big old house to dinner, their lives are suddenly intertwined with no turning back. At night the thunder rumbles and roars and shakes the old house, and in the morning Sirje is gone. The little girl, who never leaves the house on her own has gone missing. Everyone, young and old, lonely and hurt, must do their bit to help find her. Toran gongur is a heartwarming found-family story about refugees and the aftermath of war. The book has a wonderful magic realism twist.
Nominated for the Nordic Children’sCouncil and Young LiteraturePeople’s Prize 2024
Rakel Helmsdal (1966) is an author and artist. She has written 28 works for children, YA and adults.
Several of Helmsdal’s books have been nominated for and awarded prizes in the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Scandinavia. Her books have been translated into 19 languages,
including Polish, Chinese, Saami and Arabic to name a few.
Rakel constantly strives to take her art in new directions and lives by the wise words Pippi Longstocking never said: “I never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do it.”
Title: Toran gongur
Pages: 152
Publisher: BFL
Year of publication: 2023
English sample available
Photo: Gwenaël Akira Helmsdal Carré
THE SOUND OF THUNDER
Translated by Marita Thomsen
Aurora tells the story (…)
In the afternoon I asked the two little ones to help me peel vegetables for the soup. It was mayhem to have them both in the kitchen, but much nicer. Not that Sirje is ever any trouble, but there isn’t much room in the kitchen for three people cooking.
They did a good job, though, and when I was about to toss everything in the pot, I could see that we had peeled and chopped far, far too much. I had to get our biggest pot, and it was full to the brim.
‘We’ll be having soup for a whole week,’ I sighed.
Then Kaspian had an idea:
‘We could invite someone to come eat with us!’ His eyes shone, and I knew immediately what he was thinking. Something that wasn’t possible. Mum never came anymore, not since the twins were born. I had to be quick to save the idea, before he got upset.
‘Yes! Sirje, go ask your mum if she would like to come eat with us, and Kaspian, you go down to Madame Iris and ask her to come up. She’ll say yes if you invite her.’
‘And Viktor?’ Sirje asked cautiously.
I looked at her a little puzzled.
‘Viktor?’
‘Yeah, he lives here too,’ she insisted cautiously. She isn’t usually stubborn.
‘Sure, go invite him too, there’s plenty of soup,’ I replied with surprise. Viktor had never been up to see us. I’d never even talked to him, though we often passed each other in the corridor downstairs.
‘I can go,’ Sirje said and left the kitchen quietly.
‘But the soup isn’t ready yet. You have to tell them to come in an hour. And, Kaspian, ask dad to stop painting in forty-five minutes. And can you fetch a bag of bread rolls from the freezer? I’ll toss them in the oven to defrost.’
Enara tells the story
I can’t think!
Where is she?
Why did she go?
There is nobody here she could have run to.
She’s scared of so many things, and only feels safe at home and together with Kaspian.
And she’s afraid of the dark! Why did she go when everyone was asleep and there was barely any light?
I can’t lose her!
Not her too!
And not here! Nothing was supposed to happen here. That’s why we left. It was supposed to be safe.
‘Sirje!’
‘Sirje!’
Turið Hermannsdóttir & Turið Nolsøe:
ABORTION: JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE YOURSELF
This is a debate book about abortion in the Faroe Islands with articles by writers who in some way have participated in the abortion debate in the Faroe Islands.
Abortion is illegal in the Faroe Islands but a new law proposal was presented to the parliament in 2024. The current law is from 1956. Abortion is a therefore a big theme in the public debate. The book is breaking taboos about abortion in it’s thorough discussion of the topic.
Articles in the book:
• Detours to abortion – experienses and hopes ahead by Turið Hermannsdóttir, ph.d. in anthropology
• Abortion from a medical perspective by Diana Reynstind, specialist Obstetrics and gynaecology
• Abortion law 1937-2024 by Bjørk Maria Kunoy, lawyer
• Political agenda and abortion as a non-issue by Hallbera West, ph.d. in political science
• Pragmatism or principles? A philosophical reflection about minimizing damage and abortion politics by Katla Heðinsdóttir, ph.d. in philosophy
• “I was sad, but I regret nothing”: research in the psychological effects of abortion by Bjørt Lind, psychologist
• Frítt val: the united voice for freedom of choice by Gunnhild Persson, Turið Maria Jóhansdóttir, founders of Frítt Val
• Abortion in the Faroe Islands –statistics and attitude by Jóan Pauli Dahl Jakobsen, political scientist and Malan Óladóttir á Dunga, economist
• The right word. Linguistic ideals in the Faroese abortion debate by Turið Nolsøe, ph.d. in rhetorics
Title: Abort: Grundgevingar fyri rættinum at velja sjálv
Pages: 208
Publisher: Sprotin
Year of publication: 2024
English sample available
Photo: Bárður Veihe
ABORTION: JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE YOURSELF
Translated by Súsanna Ingvardsdóttir
Introduction
This is a newly written book by authors who in a variety of ways have been involved as experts in the public debate on abortion. It has been our wish to collect the authorities on the treatment of the abortion question in recent years. There are two particular reasons for this.
More voices have emerged than before. For a long time, the voices heard have been of organisations and politicians who have represented the opposition against abortion rights in the Faroe Islands. However, during the political processing of the abortion legislation in 2023–24, the discussion has been marked by more and more people advocating for more rights. They are especially represented by the association Frítt Val (en: Freedom of Choice), who has written a chapter in this book. Furthermore, several professional experts have argued for change and demonstrated problems with current law. Therefore, the list of authors includes representatives of medicine, political science, social science, philosophy, ethnology, psychology, law and rhetoric.
It is vital to gather these arguments for future generations. Regardless of the outcome of the coming political treatment of the abortion law in the Faroese Parliament, debates about abortion will always exist; in Faroese society and around the world. The question of who decides whether terminating a pregnancy should be permitted is a continual discussion, even though it changes, and we do not know what the next few years will bring when citizens, politicians and the public as a whole must take a position on abortion. It is for this reason we have collected these arguments so that as many as possible can turn to a professional book on the subject. It can be used as inspiration for one’s own perspective, the abortion debate in the Faroe Islands or as a resource for teaching in schools. This book is in many ways the first of its kind. The authors describe procedures, legislation, real-life experiences, politics regarding abortion and the knowledge we have about the subject; thus analysing a subject that until now has received little space within Faroese professional
studies. The subject has for a long time not received proper treatment in the public debate. Therefore we hope, that this publication will help to ensure a dignified debate, which recent times have shown that the issue of abortion in the Faroe Islands also accommodates.
A dignified discussion cannot be achieved through contradictory descriptions of what the different parties want. For example, a core question is how we label those we disagree with. Often the English terms pro-choice and pro-life are used; however, they derive from local debates elsewhere. It can also be difficult to group the different opinions under one label, and therefore, most allusions point to those who favour expanded abortion rights, those who oppose expanded abortion rights or those who favour tightening the current law. This is how we base the abortion rights situation that the Faroe Islands are in.
Although the abortion debate is often described as a war between two opposing parties, we would like to emphasise that there are many views; therefore, the debate should rather be seen as a spectrum from the most conservative to the most liberal perspectives. When we discuss opposition towards abortion or ideals against abortion, there are many variations, and this includes anything from a full abortion ban to just opposing more abortion rights than what is currently in the Faroe Islands. When we discuss the views for (free) abortion, we usually refer to the right to choose abortion up to one specific week of pregnancy, and the most crucial factor is that the woman chooses herself. The various abortion views will be described in more detail where relevant. Hopefully, we will be able to describe the views clearly enough that readers across the whole spectrum will be able to relate.
Each chapter is independently written by the author and in some cases authors. There has been much debate about how we should express ourselves, and whether we should put a common red thread throughout our language on abortion. Our different vocabulary and writing styles reflect the vulnerable and still new debate on the right to choose abortion in the Faroe Islands.
2019-2024 PUBLICATIONS
FICTION
Summarið varar ikki alt árið longur (2023)
Gentan í verðini (2020)
Katrin Ottarsdóttir
Sprotin
½ máni ½ sól (2023)
Jarðarferðin (2019)
Jóanes Nielsen
Sprotin
Dreymsótt (2023)
Rakel Helmsdal
Sprotin
Saga JAM (2022)
Høgni Mohr
Øgiliga egið forlag
Vatn er ein vátur logi (2021)
Terningar, søgur av tilvild (2019)
Carl Jóhan Jensen
Sprotin
Fáur fær tráðin heilt slættan (2021)
Ein annar er gull (2020)
Ein táttur er silvur (2019)
Sólrún Michelsen
Sprotin
Hjarta mítt fyri fót tín (2021)
Lív í Baianstovu
Forlagið Lív
Tám (2022)
Jón Thorsteinsson
Brúgvin
Gloymdur (2019)
Solby Christiansdóttir
Sprotin
Psykosudrotningin sigur frá (2019)
Anna Malan Jógvansdóttir
Eksil
Ikki fyrr enn tá (2019)
Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen
Sprotin
NON-FICTION
Tær góvu lív (2024)
Rigmor Restorff Dam
Sprotin
Tættir og teiti (2024)
Tórður Johannesarson
Sprotin
Ross og fólk (2023)
Uni Arge
Sprotin
Góðkrút (2023)
Disa Christiansen, Hansa Christiansen, Joan Sørinardóttir
Sprotin
Veðursjúka (2023)
Uni Arge
Sprotin
Minni frá míni lívsleið (2023)
Jákup Lamhauge
Sprotin
Reyn, kæra Reyn (2023)
Randi Kúrberg, Jørleif Kúrberg
Sprotin
Fuglar okkara (2022)
Jórun Pólsdóttir, Silas Olofson
Sprotin
Deana (2022)
Leivur Hansen
MS
Om børn, træer, hvaler og andre, der har god tid (2021)
