After the event, the Faroese Embassy will offer light refreshments.<\/p>\n
The jury about Sv\u00f8rt Orkid\u00e9: A young person who gradually disappears into an underworld, and a mother who tries to give form to grief. The work depicts a mother\u2019s fear of losing her teenage son, who is growing up and going his own way \u2013 possibly astray. The poems revolve around questions such as: When is the son his own self and no longer hers? When is she her own self and not just a mother? When are you whole \u2013 and can you ever be?<\/p>\n
The work has a strong visual expression and works with several layers of meaning and materiality. The pages are decorated with collage, created by the author herself, which is composed of texts and images from other works. This use of fragments and visual elements underscores the fractured and searching nature of the mother\u2019s experience \u2013 her attempts to find language for the unspeakable. Sv\u00f8rt Orkid\u00e9 thereby puts into words the interplay between identity and praxis: Who is a mother when their child distances themselves? And who is the author when language falls silent?<\/p>\n
The work is part of a current wave of motherhood literature, which it both discusses and refers to. This literature creates a starting point for the work\u2019s search for form and meaning in grief. At the same time, the collection of poems touches on topical issues of parenting in today\u2019s society; on a system that is failing and young people who are increasingly having a bad time in life.<\/p>\n
V\u00f3nbj\u00f8rt Vang (born in 1974) is a prominent voice on the Faroese literary scene. She came out with her first poetry collection Millumlendingar in 2011, and in 2017 the poetry collection Dj\u00fapini was published. Her writing explores deep human relationships and how these are anchored in time and place. In 2023 she published Sv\u00f8rt Orkid\u00e9 in which she captures a young person who gradually disappears into an underworld, and a mother who tries to give form to grief. For Sv\u00f8rt Orkid\u00e9 V\u00f3nbj\u00f8rt Vang received the 2025 Nordic Council Literature Prize, based on the work\u2019s strong visual expression and work with several layers of meaning and materiality.<\/p>\n
The conversation will be held in Danish and led by G\u00edsli Magn\u00fasson, professor in Danish Literature at the University of Iceland.<\/p>\n