grants

Name: Kim Simonsen
Born: 1970
Selected work: Lívfrøðiliga samansetingin í einum dropa av havvatni minnir um blóðið í mínum æðrum.
Awards and nominations: 
Nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2024 and won the National Literary Award (M.A.Jacobsen) for poetry in 2014. 

Kim Simonsen (1970) is a Faroese writer. He has authored seven books as well as numerous essays and non-fictional books. In 2014, Simonsen won the National Faroese Literary Award (M.A. Jacobsen Literature Award) for his poetry collection What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium, 2013. This collection is forthcoming in English from Deep Vellum Publishing in 2025. 

In 2022 the American translator Randi Ward was awarded for translating this book byThe American Scandinavian Foundation in New York. Simonsen’s latest poetry collection,The biological composition of a drop of seawater is reminiscent of the blood in my veins, is currently nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. In 2023 poems from this book won an award for the best poem of the year in a competition held at the Municipality of Runavík. His books have been translated into Danish and Macedonian, forthcoming into Italian, Hungarian, German and English. Simonsen has been widely published in journals and anthologies e.g.,Poetry from the Edge of Extinction. International Antology, Washington State Review, Forfatternes klimaaktion/ Writer’s Climate Action,Asympote Journal, Trafika Europa, Blue Raven Anthology and Versopolis. His poetry has been selected for 2025Best Poetry in Translation US Anthology, Translator: Randi Ward. Ed. Cristina Rivera Garza. He studied creative writing at Gladiator’s Writing Academy in Copenhagen and has been teaching creative writing at the University of the Faroe Islands. He holds a PhD from the University of Roskilde and is the managing editor of Forlagið Eksil, a Faroese press. Simonsen is also a scholar.

Works
2023 Lívfrøðiliga samansetingin í einum dropa av havvatnið minnir um blóðið í mínum æðrum. Poetry collection (Verksmiðjan)
2015 Desemburmorgun. Poetry collection (Mentanargrunnur Studentafelagsins)
2013 Hvat hjálpir einum menniskja at vakna hesumegin hetta áratúsind. Poetry Collection (Mentanargrunnur Studentafelagsins)
2012 Literature, imagining and memory in the formation of a nation. PhD Dissertation
2006 Náðisólin.
2005 Kodakmyndir úr sjeytiárunum. Poetry collection (Mentanargrunnur Studentafelagsins
2003 Dreymar um opin vindeygu. Academic essays (Mentanargrunnur Studentafelagsins)

Translations
2024 What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium (coming soon on Deep Vellum, USA)
)2023 Hvad hjælper det et menneske at vågne en morgen på denne side af dette årtusind. (Vild Maskine, Denmark)
2022 What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium (PNV Publishing, Macedonia)