Spotlighting Faroese Language and Literature in London

Faroese literature is coming to London next week!

FarLit and the Representation of the Faroe Islands in London are collaborating with UCL Nordic Studies for a special event on Friday 26 September 2025. Spotlighting Faroese language and literature as part of the celebrations for European Day of Languages, Faroese writers Beinir Bergsson and Lív Maria Róadóttir Jæger and translators Marita Thomsen and Bradley Harmon will take part in a panel discussion, chaired by Dr Mathelinda Nabugodi, Director of Creative Critical Writing and Creative Critical Inquiry (Practice-Related), SELCS, UCL.

The event will commence with a pop-up exhibition at UCL Art Museum (4-5pm), showcasing some Nordic items from UCL’s collection, followed by the panel discussion and a reception to spotlight Faroese language and literature (5-7:30pm). The discussion will cover topics such as creative writing in Faroese and translating Faroese literature into English.

The event is free, but for the panel discussion, please sign up using Eventbrite.

About each panellist:

The writers:

Lív Maria Róadóttir Jæger (b. 1981) is a Faroese writer, poet, and Ph.D. Scholar in Creative Writing at the University of the Faroe Islands. She has been an active voice on the Faroese literary scene for over a decade, with her first published prosaic works appearing in the periodical Vencil in 2013. Since then, she has released an LP poem recording, further texts for periodicals, lyrics and written two poetry collections: Hvít sól (in English White Sun) in 2015 and in 2020 Eg skrivi á vátt pappír (I Write on Wet Paper), for which she received the 2020 M. A. Jacobsen’s Literature Prize from Tórshavn City Council and was nominated for the 2021 Nordic Council Literature Prize. The latter poetry collection, which explores themes of writing to understand relationships with others and oneself over eight parts, has been translated to Danish and Canadian French, and will be published by Francis Boutle Publishers in an English translation by Bradley Harmon in the autumn of 2025.

Beinir Bergsson (b. 1997) is a Faroese poet, translator, former co-host of the cultural radio show and podcast Samværi and Chair of the Faroese Language Board as of 2025. He debuted in 2017 with the poetry collection Tann lítli drongurin og beinagrindin (in English The Little Boy and the Skeleton) and earned notable recognition in and around the Faroe Islands for his sophomore 2021 poetry collection Sólgarðurin, the first explicit collection of queer poetry in Faroese. For the latter poetry collection, Bergsson received nominations for the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize and the 2023 Prisma Award in Sweden, which honours Nordic queer literature. Sólgarðurin has been published in Danish, Icelandic, Greek and will be released in Sweden in 2026. Francis Boutle Publishers published an English translation by Marita Thomsen, named The Suntrap, in 2024.

The translators:

Bradley Harmon (b. 1994) is an American translator, scholar of Nordic and German literature and writer based in Berlin, Germany. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at John Hopkins University, and currently a guest researcher at the Department of Northern European Studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Harmon has been an Emerging Translator Mentee in Swedish with the American Literary Translators Association, as well as in Faroese with the British National Centre for Writing, mentored by Marita Thomsen. For the mentorship, Harmon worked primarily with the 1973 Faroese novel Frænir eitur ormurin by Jens Pauli Heinesen. His literary translations into English span from Swedish, German, Norwegian, Danish – and Faroese. His translation of Lív Maria Róadóttir Jæger’s poetry collection Eg skrivi á vátt pappír / I Write on Wet Paper will be published by Francis Boutle Publishers in the United Kingdom in autumn 2025, and excerpts from it have already appeared in Circumference, Annulet Poetics Journal and Deep Vellum’s Best Literary Translations 2025.

Marita Thomsen (b. 1980) is a Faroese literary and technical translator and conference interpreter, based in the United Kingdom. She has studied Interpretation and Translation in Peru and holds an MA in Conference Interpreting Techniques from the University of Westminster. Thomsen has been a visiting lecturer at a number of universities in the United Kingdom and has been a member of the Society of Authors’ Translators’ Association since 2016. She has translated several genres, including children’s and YA literature, crime fiction, literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry and playscripts, and been a mentor in literary translation from Faroese for the Emerging Translator Mentorships programme by the National Centre for Writing. She has translated various Faroese literary works into English over the years, including The Suntrap by Beinir Bergsson, published by Francis Boutle Publishers in 2024.

When and where?

4-5pm: Pop-up exhibition

UCL Art Museum, Main Building, South Wing, Room G17

5-7.30pm: Panel Discussion and Reception

IAS Common Ground, Main Building, South Wing, Room G11