Josefine Klougart
Danish novelist
About the author
Josefine Klougart (b. 1985) is the author of three bestselling novels and two works of short prose. She has studied art history and literature at Aarhus University and graduated in 2008 from the Danish Writer’s School in Copenhagen. Her debut novel, Rise and Fall (2010), was nominated for the Nordic Council Literary Prize. In October 2011 Klougart was awarded the Royal Prize for Culture. In her citation the committee called her “one of the most important writers, not just of her generation, but in her time.”
In February 2012 the Swedish director Annika Silkeberg adapted Klougart’s second novel for the stage at Aarhus Theater.
In February 2012 Klougart published her third novel One Of Us is Asleep—her most ambitious work to date, widely regarded by Danish critics as a masterpiece. Politiken, a
major Danish broadsheet, called it a “fascinating novel of love and loss”, while Berlingske Tidende referred to it as “one of this year’s great books.”
Klougart is one of Denmark’s most popular and—despite her age—established writers. She lives and works in Copenhagen, where she is also the editor of Den blå port, Denmark’s oldest literary journal.
Her books are forthcoming in translation in several European countries. Klougart has also appeared at a number of literary festivals in Norway, Sweden, France, Finland, Turkey.
Alexander Weinstein’s translations of excerpts of Klougart’s novels have been accepted in the following American journals: Salamander (Winter 2012), Conduit (Spring 2012), Fjords (Fall 2012) and World Literature Today (Summer 2012). In Morten Høi Jensen’s translation a short excerpt of The Halls appeared in Ugarte Magazine.
Her forthcoming work in Fjords will be nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
The Novels
Rise and Fall, Rosinante 2010, pp. 171
RISE AND FALL is the evocation of a childhood on the island of Mols in the 1980s. It is a lyrical journey through the exterior and interior landscapes of nature and the soul. It is a portrait of a family, of a hometown, and of an encounter with language.
The places and language of childhood—all the things that shape a human being.
“Josefine Klougart’s excellent novel Rise and Fall was one of the true gifts of the publishing season.” – Information
“It has been a long time since you’ve read a book by such a young writer, in which nature plays a leading part and is poetically intertwined with the description of a child’s consciousness (…) Rise and Fall is an exceptionally beautiful and confident debut.” – Politiken
“If this is what literature can be like, it must mean something” — Tomas Espedal, award-winning Norwegian author of Against the Art: The Notebooks
“An evocation of childhood as engaging and precisely observed as any” — Carsten Jensen, author of We, the Drowned
The Halls, Rosinante 2011, pp.175
The Halls is a lyrical investigation of a masochistic relationship between a man and a woman. With Copenhagen as its backdrop, the apartment of the two protagonists becomes a stage to the audience in the bar across the street. These perspectives – the audience’s, the man’s and the woman’s – create a space for the exploration of love and desire, power and humiliation—the act of seeing.
“Klougart is a virtuoso writer (…) horribly beautiful and intense.” — Politiken
“The male character creates emotional art of his love, but Klougart creates emotional art of him.” — Susanne Christensen, Vagant vol. 2
One of us is Sleeping, Rosinante 2012, pp. 264
ONE OF US IS SLEEPING is a novel about leaving and being left behind; a story about the unfolding of a relationship that insists on the necessity of sorrow. It is a novel about loss, homelessness, and light.
“A masterpiece (…) one of the year’s great books” — Berlingske Tidende
“A fascinating novel of love and loss…Klougart is a master” — Information
“A thoughtful and sensitive novel” — Politician
“A sparkling lyrical story… Klougart’s sensuous figurative language is brilliant” — Ekstrabladet
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Contact information
For further information visit
www.josefineklougart.dk
or email the author at:
Danish address:
Josefine Klougart
Arkonagade 12, 2. Tv
1726 København V.
Denmark
Phone: (+45) 51-94-48-83
American address:
Josefine Klougart
C/o Morten Høi Jensen
663 Rugby Road
Brooklyn NY, 11230
Phone: 518-935-0163
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”Rise and fall”, the debut by Josefine Klougart, caught the overwhelming attention of the Danish literary critics.
Her concise and evocative prose simply became one of the most talked-about publications of 2010 – quite extraordinary for a debut of such uncompromising artistic stature. “Debutant with colossal potential”, “a golden egg” “a prose-lyrical talent” is just to name a few of the many favourable comments on the young Danish author.
Portraying the seismographic sensation of the Danish territory Mols Bjerge, an undulating landscape, where the writer herself grew up, the novel lyrically and associatively leads the story from one ambience to another. The vivid account of the landscape impressed the critics, who among other things wrote:
“It has been a long time since you’ve read a book of a young writer, where nature to such an extent plays a leading part and is poetically intertwined with the description of a child’s consciousness (…) ‘Rise an fall’ is an exceptionally beautiful and confident debut.” – Politiken
Josefine Klougart’s prose expresses an immense trust and investigating interest in the language as such through which she modulates the experiences and things of daily life, it is a prose that feeds on poetry:
“With this outstanding debut Josefine Klougart demonstrates a brilliant talent for materializing acute sensations and ingenious musings in and through language.” – Kristeligt Dagblad
Characterizing the relation to language, Klougart herself says: “The language, the designation and the organization of the world that it entails, matters. The language interacts with the reality and the consciousness. Therefore it is not unimportant how you use it”
Under any circumstance “Rise and fall” has attracted notice to an immense talent with a very special gift for language; there is no doubt that the critics are right: Josefine Klougart is the rising star of the Danish literary scene.
In october 2010, Josefine Klougart published the book, Den vind man manglede.
In january 2011 Josefine Klougart published her second novel, The Halls.
December 2010: Rise and fall was nominated for the Nordic Council´s prize in litterature
2011, Klougart was the winner of the Royal prize in Culture 2011
2012 Klougart published her third novel, One of us is sleeping
2012 Klougart publish the short prose book, The Mountains do not care, which is translated in to English and Arabic
2012, Josefine Klougart became the editor of Den Blå Port
The commité of the Royal Cultural Prize wrote:
“With just two books on the market, she is one of the most important writers, not just of her generation, but in her time. The heat and cold meet in the language, is more important than the actual story.”
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