Six writers receive writing fellowships at universities in Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands
The foundation initially established a collaboration with six humanities departments during the pilot period, which this year has been expanded to include the University of Greenland and the University of the Faroe Islands. Each department is invited to submit up to two applications. The applications were written as a collaboration between the writer and a researcher at the relevant department.
The writers will each receive a two-year writing fellowship of DKK 200,000 annually. In addition, the universities’ overheads for the writers’ offices and admin are covered.
The pilot project runs for two years, and will be evaluated this year in order to decide whether the programme should be continued.
The new fiction writers-in-residence are: Sørine Steenholdt, René Jean Jensen, Peder Frederik Jensen, Alen Meskovic, Maja Lee Langvad and Anna Malan Jógvansdóttir. Soon, they will be taking up residence at the University of Greenland, Aalborg University, the University of Southern Denmark and the University of the Faroe Islands.
VELUX FONDEN runs the programme in order to strengthen fictional writing and pave the way for new literary breakthroughs. Creating time and space for collaboration and mutual inspiration between writers, researchers and students will hopefully lead to new and creative realisations and expressions.
“Based on our positive collaboration with the literary environments at the six Danish universities and the highly talented writers who received the first writers-in-residence grants a year ago, we have now expanded the circle of invitees to include the literary environments at the universities in Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The grantees from these universities are testament to the high artistic standards of these writing environments, and will be able to use the grants to seek inspiration for their further artistic development. At the same time, we hope that increasing the scope of the programme will strengthen the literary ties between the three countries. In all three countries, fiction plays a crucial role in society and to democracy,” says head of programme Henrik Tronier at VELUX FONDEN.
