Winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2025
Vónbjørt Vang
Black Orchid
Svørt Orkidé
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: Eksil
Year: 2023
Pages: 88
ISBN: 9789991889405
English sample translation available
Winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2025, Black Orchid is a formally innovative and emotionally powerful exploration of motherhood, grief, and the limits of language.
At the heart of the collection is a mother's experience of watching her son struggle to find his place in the world. Faced with experiences that resist easy expression, Vónbjørt Vang creates a rich and inventive literary form that transforms personal grief into art.
Combining poems, diary excerpts, essayistic reflections, collages, flashbacks, and references to literary history, Black Orchid moves seamlessly between the intimate and the political. At once deeply personal and socially engaged, the collection reflects on contemporary parenthood, vulnerable young lives, and the systems that fail those most in need of support.
Part of a broader Nordic and international wave of feminist and maternal writing, Black Orchid stands out for its formal ambition, emotional precision, and remarkable literary force.
Layout by Kirstin Helgadóttir
Photo: Ana Holden-Peters
Vónbjørt Vang (b. 1974) is an award-winning Faroese poet and author. In 2025, she became the first Faroese writer to receive the Nordic Council Literature Prize. She has studied comparative literature and holds a BA in Creative Writing.
Awards
Nordic Council Literature Prize 2025
Readers Award (Faroese libraries) 2026
Faroese National Literature Prize (M.A. Jacobsen) 2024
Atlantic Airways listaflog 2026
Rights sold to
Estonia
Greece
Iceland
Previous titles
Úr loggbókunum, 2023
Djúpini, 2019
Millumlendingar, 2011
Rightsholder
Copenhagen Literary Agency
Monica C. Gram
monica@cphla.dk
cphla.dk