Carl Jóhan Jensen


Carl Jóhan Jensen is a Faroese writer, poet and literary critic. His books have five times been nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1991, 1998, 2007, 2008 and 2016. In 1989 and 2006 he received the M. A. Jacobsen's Cultural Prize from Tórshavn City Council

Biography

Jensen was born and grew up in Tórshavn and moved to Denmark in 1973 to attend a Danish gymnasium. Having graduated, he moved back to the Faroe Islands in 1976, where he worked in various jobs, i.e. as a journalist. From 1979 to 1981 he studied the Faroese language at the Faroese University in Tórshavn, and from 1981 to 1987 studied Icelandic in Reykjavík. In 1990 he graduated cand.phil. in Faroese.
He and his Australian wife Kate Sanderson have two sons. They live in Tórshavn, though with a period spent abroad, when Sanderson, having worked for the Faroese government as a special advisor for several years, was sent in 2012 for a three-year term as Faroese ambassador to the EU, based in Brussels. Jensen accompanied her.

Novels

  • 1979: Seinnapartur
  • 1995: Rúm
  • 2005: Ó – Søgur um djevulskap,, Sprotin, 786 pp.,
  • * 2010: U-, historier om djevelskap. Det Norske Samlaget. Translated into Norwegian by Lars Moa.
  • 2014: ''Eg síggi teg betur í myrkri''

Poetry

  • 1977: Yrkingar
  • 1982: Skríggj, Mentunargrunnur studentafelagsins.
  • 1984: Messa á kvøldi og fram undir morgun, Mentunargrunnur studentafelagsins.
  • 1990: Hvørkiskyn, Mentunargrunnar Studentafelagsins
  • 1997: Tímar og rek, Mentunargrunnur studentafelagsins.
  • 2006: September í bjørkum sum kanska eru bláar
  • Contributed to the first ever Faroese/German anthology “From Janus Djurhuus to Tóroddur Poulsen – Faroese Poetry during 100 Years”, academic advice: Turið Sigurðardóttir, lineartranslation: Inga Meincke, edited by Paul Alfred Kleinert.

Essays

  • 2000: ''Mentir og mentaskapur''

Awards, nominations etc.