Oddvør Johansen

Oddvør Johansen (born October 30, 1941 in Tórshavn , Faroe Islands ) is a Faroese writer and organist at the Tórshavn Cathedral .

biography

Oddvør was born in 1941 as the daughter of the organ builder Verland Johansen and Ebba Restorff. Her father was actually a furniture designer, but at the age of 50 he switched to organ builder and made 20 organs for the churches in the Faroe Islands. She grew up in a very musical family, which was later reflected in her literary work. After the divorced first marriage, she moved to Denmark with one of the two adopted children, where she married the violinist Kanny Sambleben in 1978, with whom she has two other children. Her stepdaughter, the well-known flautist Michala Petri , comes from Sambleben's first marriage. In 1987 Oddvør Johansen returned to the Faroe Islands with his husband and children.

Oddvør Johansen made her debut in 1982 with the novel Lívsins summar ("Summer of Life"), for which she received the 1983 Faroe Islands Literature Prize . It was one of the first women novels in the Faroe Islands and has been translated into Danish and Swedish. In 1988 she won the Tórshavn Commune Children's Book Prize for Skip í eygsjón (“Ship in Eyes'), a realistic novel set at the beginning of the 19th century. In 2001 her historical novel Í morgin er aftur ein dagur (“Tomorrow is another day”) was nominated for the Nordic Council's literary prize, which she did not receive. In 2002 she received the Faroe Islands Literature Prize again, this time for the novel Tá ið eg havi málað summarhúsið ("When I painted the summer house"). In 2004 she won the Novel Competition of the Faroe Islands Art Meeting ( Listastevna Føroya ) and 150,000 kroner with the novel Sebastians hús ("Sebastian's House") . The novel was also published in Icelandic the following year.

In 2006 her short story “It is good to be strong, Maria!” ( God he at vera sterkur, Maria! ) Was published in German. There the first-person narrator is an elderly writer who is connected to her homeland and ironically deals with the young “literary pope ” Carl Jóhan Jensen , who questions all poetic traditions.

Oddvør Johansen - like most Faroese authors - cannot make a living from writing because of the small local market and despite her many book titles, but is dependent on her profession as an organist at Tórshavner Cathedral and organ student. According to her own statements, she still belongs to the generation that writes her works by hand (pencil).

bibliography

1982 - Lívsins summar (novel, Faroese Literature Prize 1983)

1985 - Lives summer (Danish)
1985 - Livets sommar (Swedish)

1983 - Hundalív í Grindavági (children's book)

1988 - Skip í eygsjón (children's book illustrated by Olivur við Neyst , Faroese children's book award 1988)

1990 - Bella Katrina (short stories)

1993 - A mamma he a mamma (novel)

1995 - Á káta horninum (short stories)

1998 - Í morgin er aftur a dagur (novel, nominated for the Nordic Literature Prize 2001)

2001 - Tá ið eg havi málað summarhúsið (novel, Faroese literature prize 2002)

with others 2001 - Mjørki í Heilum (anthology)

from 2006 - "It is good to be strong, Maria!" ( God er at vera sterkur, Maria ) in: "I know about islands ..." Stories from the Faroe Islands (translated by Inga Meincke, edited by Verena Stössinger and Anna Katharina Dömling / Unionsverlag) ( review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung )

2004 - Sebastians hús (novel)

2005 - Sebastianshús (Icelandic)

2006 - Úr køksvindeyganum (essays and short stories)

2015 - Svanarnir syngja (essays and short stories)

Discography

1995 - Kári av Reyni : Eg elski teg land, Tutl SHD 17 (well-known Faroese and Scandinavian songs, with Oddvør Johansen on the organ)

Secondary literature

Malan Marnersdóttir : Vold and literature . 2005. (Review of the novella Sjúti ferðir sjey feriðir ("70 times 7 times") from Bella Katrina (1990) in Danish)