Danish Literature

In the first decades of the 21st century, Danish literature has been going through a period of renewal, with the emergence of many young authors and a change in book culture. From 2010 to 2021, the number of new fiction titles increased by 74%. Audiobooks have become a very popular genre: in 2021 the number of fiction titles released as electronic books exceeded the number of printed books for the first time, and 20% of the adult population had a subscription to a literary streaming service. Authors, publishers, and readers flock to popular events around the country, including literature festivals and the annual Book Forum, where new publications are often launched.

Social media has created new relationships between authors and readers, and many authors are skilled users of social media, inviting their readers to share in their work on new publications and debates about books. Leonora Christina Skov is an example of a writer who in an innovative way involves her readers in everything from the organisation of cover photos for her new book to her choice of clothing style.
The overall picture of recent Danish literature shows a varied landscape, where there are many promising debut authors as well as more established authors who are currently publishing important books. Among authors making their debut Palestinian-Danish Yahya Hassan (1995–2020) became a sensation when in 2013 he published his poems, Yahya Hassan, which depict a painful upbringing in which the child and the young man are caught between a brutal patriarchal Arab culture and a failed Danish welfare pedagogy that does not understand the young man’s situation. Yahya Hassan’s poems became a bestseller and, by Danish standards, sold in astronomical numbers. In the following years, several authors with immigrant backgrounds have portrayed a feeling of homelessness in life between several cultures. Amina Elmi, who made her debut in 2023 with the poetry collection BARBAR [Tavshedens Objekt] (BARBARIAN [The Object of Silence]), has garnered great critical acclaim, and her poems shed new light on the social, cultural, and religious problems she experienced as a young woman with a Danish-Somali background. She does not write political poems, testimonies, or manifestos, but she uses her linguistic ability to connect with all that has been lost and shrouded in silence. A third notable debut author is Greenlandic Niviaq Korneliussen, who won the Nordic Council Literature Prize for her second novel Blomsterdalen (The Valley of Flowers, 2020), which depicts the horrific number of suicides committed by young Greenlanders. Corneliussen’s novel is part of the new cultural self-awareness and critique of colonialism prevalent among young Greenlandic artists.

Overall, there seems to be a new commitment to society at work in Danish literature, both in the form of everyday realism and in experimental literature critical of climate change. One of Denmark’s popular realist authors, Helle Helle, writes stories in a minimalistic style about people who lose their footing in life through the death of family members or divorce. Her subdued narrative style takes hold of the unspoken and implied in human relationships. Her characters are lonely and insecure, and their stories are deeply serious and tragic, yet full of subtle humour. Her Hafni fortæller (Hafni Narrates, 2023) portrays a woman who, after a divorce, goes on an educational journey during which she eats her way through classic Danish open-faced sandwiches (smørrebrød) while thinking about her life. The novel mixes fairy tales, everyday portrayals and an understated humour that grips the reader. Several critics consider this novel to be Helle’s best. Katrine Marie Guldager is another important realistic Danish storyteller. She has embarked on a series of novels about angry middle-aged women who become enraged by demands from family, work, and friends. Birgithe med th (Birgithe with th, 2022), about a teacher who must clear out her deceased mother’s house’ is the first in this series.

Realistic stories are a trend in recent Danish literature, but climate fiction and autofiction are also important genres. Jonas Eika won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2019 for his stories, Efter solen (After the Sun, 2018), in which he uses experimental prose to create images of capitalism that has run rampant and climate change that threatens the future of life. Critical voices in relation to the climate crisis, capitalism and the exploitation of nature can also be found in seasoned authors such as Jens Smærup Sørensen, Susanne Brøgger, Kirsten Thorup, Klaus Høeck and Peter Laugesen. These veteran writers, who made their debuts in the 1960s, are still publishing important works critical of society. Autofiction is also a strong feature in Danish contemporary literature: Leonora Christina Skov’s personal account, Den som lever stille (The One Who Lives Quietly, 2018) tells of the author’s conflict with her family when she comes out as a lesbian. The book testifies to readers’ great interest in autofiction and to how gender issues have become a trend in Danish literature.