Niels Hav is a full time poet and short story writer living in Copenhagen. A contemporary Nordic voice with poetry and fiction published in numerous journals and anthologies in e.g. English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Dutch, Chinese.
A new English collection of his poetry, We Are Here is published by Book Thug of Toronto - translated con amore by Patrick Friesen and Per Brask.
Most recently a selection of Niels Hav’s poetry, U Odbranu Pesnika, has appeared in Serbian translation, published by RAD, Belgrade 2008.
Raised on a farm in western Denmark Niels Hav today resides in the most colourful and multiethnic part of the Danish capital. He has travelled widely in Europe, Asia, North and South America. In his native Danish he is the author of three books of short fiction and five collections of poetry, most recently Grundstof, Gyldendal 2004.
Niels Hav has received a number of prestigious awards from The Danish Arts Council.
Review www.theliteraryreview.org/edchoice/hugus_50_3.html:
“…Niels Hav's We Are Here, aptly translated into English by Patrick Friesen and P.K. Brask, brings to us a selection from the works of one of Denmark's most talented living poets and is all the more welcome for that reason….
As exemplified in We Are Here, Hav's poetry is characterized by an economy of expression, disarmingly straightforward language, gentle humor, irony - which is often self-directed - arresting imagery, and a subdued but persistent undertone of existential angst…
Niels Hav's We Are Here touches all facets of what it means to be a sentient human being in an imperfect and impermanent world. Readers will find much that is familiar to them in this collection but will experience the familiar through a different lens, one that can help put the world into a fresher and, possibly, more lucid perspective.”
- Frank Hugus, The Literary Review
Translator Per K. Brask is a Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at the University of Winnipeg where he has taught since1982.
He has published poetry, short stories, drama, translations, interviews and essays in several journals.
His books include Power/lessness (monologues, Turnstone Chapbooks,1987), Duets (short stories, with George Szanto, Coteau, 1989), DramaContemporary: Scandinavia (plays, ed., PAJ, 1989), Aboriginal Voices: Amerindian, Inuit and Sami Theatre (essays, plays and interviews, ed. with William Morgan, Johns Hopkins UP, 1992 Contemporary Issues in Canadian Theatre and Drama (essays, ed. Blizzard Publishing, 1995), Essays on Kushner's Angels (ed. Blizzard Publishing, 1995), Seven Canons (plays by Canadian women ed. with Martin Bragg and Roy Surrette, Playwrights Canada Press, 2000).
He wrote the libretto for Michael Matthews's chamber opera Prince Kasper, which premiered in May 2005.
