Literature and humanities in dialogue

Inspiration, dialogue and collaboration between literary art and humanities

NOTE! Under this program, selected departments are invited to apply together with the authors.

Literature is a lifeline in society; it's in demand and reaches widely across the population. It helps express, shape, and develop identity, cohesion, citizenship, and public debate. Thus, it's an important contribution to promoting a democratic and sustainable society on an informed and inclusive basis.

We aim to strengthen this significance by fostering mutual inspiration, conversation, and collaboration between literary art and the humanities. We do this by providing fiction writers with the opportunity to work on their artistic endeavors and literary productions in active teaching and research environments at universities as 'writers-in-residence.'

The writers-in-residence program offers two-year work grants of 200,000 DKK per year in honorarium to the authors, as well as coverage of the universities' expenses for office space, administration, and release time. These work grants are intended to supplement other sources of income for the authors and create time and space for their literary work.

Applications should be prepared jointly by the university department and the applying author (see guidelines below).

The program, Literature and Humanities in Dialogue, unfolds through close dialogue and collaboration with currently eight university departments (literature studies and languages) in Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. As the first step in the overall competition process, the departments are invited to select the authors who, in collaboration with a researcher from the department, will submit applications. With roots in the invited department, the author will also be able to establish collaborations with relevant research environments in other departments.

The following departments are invited to submit two applications each:

Department of Culture and Learning, Aalborg University
School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University
Department of the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark
Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen
Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen
Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University
Department of Culture, Language, and History, Ilisimatusarfik / University of Greenland
Faculty of Language and Literature, Fróðskaparsetur Føroya / University of the Faroe Islands

The program is developed in close dialogue and collaboration with the involved university departments.

Once the departments have selected the authors and submitted the applications, all applications are collectively reviewed by an external panel appointed by the foundation. The panel consists of impartial experts, including renowned authors and researchers from the Nordic countries. The panel provides written evaluations of each application and a prioritized recommendation to the foundation's board.

Based on this assessment, the board makes decisions regarding grants. Typically, six to eight applications will be funded. Therefore, the success rate is approximately 1/2 among all submitted applications.

We emphasize the collection of experiences and capacity building for both authors and universities. We hold regular annual networking meetings for the funded authors and researchers, allowing experiences to be gathered as a shared resource for improvements and passed on from previous to new grant recipients each year. This will also be part of the foundation's evaluation and further development of the program and announcements.

Additionally, the foundation has allocated funding for a Ph.D. research project. This project, based on empirical evidence from the funded projects, will investigate how authors can best be integrated into university environments and what kind of knowledge emerges from the encounter between literary and academic knowledge and practices.