Awards to literary talents
On Wednesday night, the annual Faroese Cultural Prizes were awarded by the Faroese government in Varpið, Klaksvík. The culture minister, Sirið Stenberg, handed three prizes to three individual artists, who each have contributed to the Faroese literary scene in different ways.
The recipient of the Award to a Young Artist was Beinir Bergsson for his poetry and cultural commentary on the radio programme Samværi, which he co-hosts with Dania O. Tausen. Beinir debuted in 2017 with his poetry collection Tann lítli drongurin og beinagrindin and received widespread acclaim for his second poetry collection Sólgarðurin, released in 2021. The latter was notably nominated for the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize and has also been translated into several languages. His third poetry collection Náttargarðurin is currently in the works.
The Faroese Award of Honour went to American translator Randi Ward for her contributions to translation from Faroese and raising awareness of Faroese literature on the international stage. Randi has previously won the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Nadia Christensen Prize twice for her translations from Nordic languages to English, including in 2021 when she was recognised for her translation from Faroese of Kim Simonsen’s 2013 poetry collection Hvat hjálpir einum menniskja at vakna ein morgun hesumegin hetta áratúsundið. She has also translated works by several other Faroese authors and poets, including Guðrið Helmsdal, Steinbjørn B. Jacobsen, Tóroddur Poulsen, Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs, Sissal Kampmann and Oddfríður Marni Rasmussen.
Artist Hanni Bjartalíð received the main award of the night, the Faroese Cultural Prize for his artistic achievements. Hanni, who is based in Finland, has over the years exhibited his work in multiple countries. Hanni’s illustrations have also notably been featured in a number of books, such as the highly popular children’s book Í Geyma, published by Bókadeild Føroya Lærarafelags, and most recently Søgur úr Latínamerika, a collection of short stories from the Spanish language translated to Faroese by Marianna Hoydal, published by Sprotin.
