Niviaq Korneliussen

Niviaq Korneliussen (born 27 January 1990) is a Greenlandic writer, who writes in Greenlandic and Danish. Her 2014 debut novel, Homo Sapienne, was written in Greenlandic, as well as in a Danish translation by the author, with both published by Milik in 2014. Naasuliardarpi (2020) was her follow-up a few years later, and earned her the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Prize.

Niviaq Korneliussen
Niviaq Korneliussen (2016)
Born	(1990-01-27) 27 January 1990 (age 35) Nanortalik, Greenland
Occupation	Novelist
Language	Greenlandic, Danish
Years active	2013 – Present
Notable works	Homo Sapienne (2014) Naasuliardarpi (2020)
Notable awards	Nordic Council Literature Prize (2021)

Biography

Korneliussen was born in Nanortalik, Greenland.^[1] She studied social sciences at the University of Greenland and then psychology at the University of Aarhus, but ended up dropping out of both programs as her writing career launched.^[2]

In 2012 she took part in the Allatta! writing project, which encourages young Greenlanders to write literature that reflects their lives.^[3] Korneliussen's short story "San Francisco" was one of the 10 Allatta! works published in Greenlandic and Danish in the project's 2013 anthology.^[3]

Her 2014 debut novel Homo Sapienne focuses on the lives of five young adults in Nuuk.^[4] It was noted for both its use of modern storytelling techniques and for its portrayal of LGBTQ+ people in Greenlandic society.^[5] As a lesbian, Korneliussen said it was important for her to write about gay life in Greenland because she had never encountered anything about homosexuality in Greenlandic literature.^[6]

Homo Sapienne was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize and the Politiken Literature Award in 2015 and has subsequently been published in English, French,^[4] German, Swedish, Norwegian and Romanian.^[7]

In 2020, she published Naasuliardarpi in Greenlandic and a Danish translation, Blomsterdalen, (Flower Valley), which won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2021.^[8] In 2022, Greenlandic Culture Minister Peter P. Olsen [dk] presented Korneliussen a cultural award for her writing.^[9]

Works

• "San Francisco"
  • published in Inuusuttut — nunatsinni nunarsiarmilu (2013). ISBN 978-87-92790-18-7
  • published in Ung i Grønland — ung i verden (2015). ISBN 978-87-92790-43-9
• HOMO sapienne (2014). ISBN 978-87-92790-44-6
  • translated into Danish by the author as HOMO sapienne (2014). ISBN 978-87-92790-65-1
  • translated into German by Giannina Spinty-Mossin and Katja Langmaier as Nuuk #ohne Filter (2016) ISBN 978-3-902902-47-4
  • translated into English (Great Britain) by Anna Halager as Crimson (2018). ISBN 978-0-349-01056-4
  • translated into French by Inès Jorgensen as Homo sapienne (2018). ISBN 978-2-924519-58-5
  • translated into Icelandic by Heiðrún Ólafsdóttir as HOMO sapína (2018). ISBN 978-9935-465-92-4
  • translated into Swedish by Jonas Rasmussen as Homo Sapienne (2018). ISBN 978-91-7343-752-3
  • translated into English (USA) by Anna Halager as Last night in Nuuk (2019). ISBN 978-0-8021-4674-8
  • translated into Norwegian by Kim Leine as HOMO sapienne (2019). ISBN 978-82-02-57245-7
  • translated into Romanian by Simina Răchițeanu as HOMO sapienne (2020). ISBN 978-973-47-3296-8
  • translated into Polish by Agata Lubowicka as HOMO sapienne (2021). ISBN 978-83-953485-6-3
• Naasuliardarpi (2020). ISBN 978-87-93941-15-1
  • translated into Danish by the author as Blomsterdalen (2020). ISBN 978-87-02-27838-5
  • translated into Faroese by Vagnur Streymoy as Blómudalurin (2022). ISBN 978-99972-1-462-1
  • translated into Polish by Agata Lubowicka as Dolina Kwiatów (2022). ISBN 978-83-8191-546-5
  • translated into Italian by Francesca Turri as La valle dei fiori (2023). ISBN 978-88-7091-670-6
  • translated into German by Franziska Hüther as Das Tal der Blumen (2023). ISBN 978-3-442-76239-2
  • translated into French by Inès Jorgensen as La vallée des fleurs (2023). ISBN 978-2-264-08113-1

References

1. "Korneliussen, Niviaq". Inuit Literatures ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᒍᓯᖏᑦ Littératures inuites. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
2. Kembrey, Melanie (26 April 2019). "Niviaq Korneliussen on growing up gay in Greenland and her breakout book". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
3. "Allatta! — Let us write!". NAPA/Nordens Institut i Grønland. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
4. "Homo Sapienne". Inuit Literatures ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᒍᓯᖏᑦ Littératures inuites. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
5. Gee, Alastair (31 January 2019). "The Young Queer Writer Who Became Greenland's Unlikely Literary Star". The New Yorker. New York City, New York. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
6. Scherrebeck, Emil Eggert (15 November 2014). "'Danmark har lært mig mere end at lave brun sovs'" ["Denmark has taught me more than making brown sauce"]. Dagbladet Information (in Danish). Copenhagen, Denmark. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
7. "HOMO sapienne". Milik Publishing. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
8. "Niviaq Korneliussen wins the 2021 Nordic Council Literature Prize". Nordic Co-operation. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
9. Veirum, Thomas Munk (21 June 2022). "Korneliussen og Kreutzmann får kulturpriser". Sermitsiaq.AG (in Danish). Retrieved 28 June 2022.