The Nordic Council has nominated the author Debora H. Kleist for this year’s literature prize for the novel: Sarsuatitat, Livets strøm.
13 authors from the Nordic countries have been nominated for the Nordic Council’s literature prize and from Greenland it is Debora H. Kleist who has the chance to receive a prize of 300,000 kroner.
In the mention of the novel Sarsuatitat from 2024, the prize committee writes that the Greenlandic author has “created a literary work of high artistic quality which, with linguistic precision and poetic strength, examines man’s connection with nature, time and community”.
– Through a sensuous and rhythmic language, Kleist manages to portray life as a continuous movement – a stream where individual experiences, collective histories and the voices of generations flow together. The text balances between the intimate and the universal and makes room for both silence and intensity. This linguistic openness invites the reader to reflection and recognition without locking in the meaning, says the review.
This is Debora H. Kleist’s debut novel. She has previously written a short story Olieeventyret, which was published in 2015 and was included in a collection of short stories, which was designated as a White Raven book in 2016.
Debora H. Kleist, a trained geologist, was born in Qaqortoq in 1989.
The final winner of the literature prize will be announced on 20 October, and the award statuette itself will be presented at the Nordic Council session in Helsinki on 27 October.
