Author Annika Luther interviews Faroese youth literature author Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs who is nominated for this year’s Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize for her book Sum rótskot.
Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs (born 1974) is a Faroese prose writer, poet and playwright. Since her debut in 2000, she has written for adults, children and young people. Her YA novel Skriva í sandin, 2010 (‘Write in the Sand’, not translated into English) won the Nordic Children’s Book Prize and the White Raven in 2011, and was nominated for the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize in 2013. Marjun Syderbø Kjelnæs has been awarded several prizes and scholarships, and her works have been translated into the various Nordic languages as well as English, French and German.
Annika Luther was born in Helsinki in 1958. She is a trained biologist and works as a lecturer in biology, geography, and human ecology at Tölö upper secondary school. She is married and has eight children. She has translated non-fiction and textbooks, written articles, reviews, three novels and six youth novels, and been involved in a history book and a cookbook.
