Niviaq Korneliussen Explained

Niviaq Korneliussen
Birth Date:	27 January 1990
Birth Place:	Nanortalik, Greenland
Language:	Greenlandic, Danish
Occupation:	Novelist
Notable Works:	Homo Sapienne (2014) Naasuliardarpi (2020)
Awards:	Nordic Council Literature Prize (2021)
Years Active:	2013 Present

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.

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. 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. It was noted for both its use of modern storytelling techniques and for its portrayal of LGBTQ+ people in Greenlandic society.^[4] 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.^[5]

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,^[6] German, Swedish, Norwegian and Romanian.^[7]

In 2020, she published Kalaallisut; Greenlandic: Naasuliardarpi in Greenlandic and a Danish translation, Danish: Blomsterdalen, (English: Flower Valley|lk=no|italic=yes), which won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2021.^[8] In 2022, Greenlandic Culture Minister presented Korneliussen a cultural award for her writing.^[9]

Works

• "San Francisco"
  • published in Inuusuttut — nunatsinni nunarsiarmilu (2013).
  • published in Ung i Grønland — ung i verden (2015).
• HOMO sapienne (2014).
  • translated into Danish by the author as HOMO sapienne (2014).
  • translated into German by Giannina Spinty-Mossin and Katja Langmaier as Nuuk #ohne Filter (2016)
  • translated into English (Great Britain) by Anna Halager as Crimson (2018).
  • translated into French by Inès Jorgensen as Homo sapienne (2018).
  • translated into Icelandic by Heiðrún Ólafsdóttir as HOMO sapína (2018).
  • translated into Swedish by Jonas Rasmussen as Homo Sapienne (2018).
  • translated into English (USA) by Anna Halager as Last night in Nuuk (2019).
  • translated into Norwegian by Kim Leine as HOMO sapienne (2019).
  • translated into Romanian by Simina Răchițeanu as HOMO sapienne (2020).
  • translated into Polish by Agata Lubowicka as HOMO sapienne (2021).
• Naasuliardarpi (2020).
  • translated into Danish by the author as Blomsterdalen (2020).
  • translated into Faroese by Vagnur Streymoy as Blómudalurin (2022).
  • translated into Polish by Agata Lubowicka as Dolina Kwiatów (2022).
  • translated into Italian by Francesca Turri as La valle dei fiori (2023).
  • translated into German by Franziska Hüther as Das Tal der Blumen (2023).
  • translated into French by Inès Jorgensen as La vallée des fleurs (2023).

Notes and References

1. Web site: Korneliussen, Niviaq . 3 June 2021 . Inuit Literatures ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᒍᓯᖏᑦ Littératures inuites.
2. News: 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 . 7 April 2020.
3. Web site: Allatta! — Let us write! . 7 April 2020 . NAPA/Nordens Institut i Grønland.
4. Gee . Alastair . 31 January 2019 . The Young Queer Writer Who Became Greenland's Unlikely Literary Star . The New Yorker . New York City, New York . 7 April 2020.
5. News: Scherrebeck . Emil Eggert . 15 November 2014 . 'Danmark har lært mig mere end at lave brun sovs' . Danish . "Denmark has taught me more than making brown sauce" . Dagbladet Information . Copenhagen, Denmark . 7 April 2020.
6. Web site: Homo Sapienne . 3 June 2021 . Inuit Literatures ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᒍᓯᖏᑦ Littératures inuites.
7. Web site: HOMO sapienne . 7 April 2020 . Milik Publishing.
8. Web site: 2021-11-02 . Niviaq Korneliussen wins the 2021 Nordic Council Literature Prize . 2024-02-07 . Nordic Co-operation . en.
9. News: Veirum . Thomas Munk . Korneliussen og Kreutzmann får kulturpriser . 28 June 2022 . Sermitsiaq.AG . 21 June 2022 . da.