Translated by: Bogusława Sochańska

Amina Elmi

excerpt from the recommendation:

Amina Elmi’s writing provokes strong reactions from critics and readers alike. Her focus lies on the experiences of refugees growing up in a country that is both theirs and not theirs at the same time. Elmi’s poetry explores questions of (national, religious, and sexual) identity and the social and emotional consequences of being an African refugee in Denmark. Her work is both distinctly political and deeply personal – and moving for both reasons.

 

 

 

Amina Elmi

AMINA ELMI (b. 1994) is a Danish poet of Somali descent. Born in Somalia, she has lived in Denmark since the age of three, after her parents emigrated there with their six children. She studied English at Aalborg University and graduated from the Copenhagen writers’ academy Forfatterskolen. Her acclaimed debut poetry collection, Barbar [tavshedens objekt] (Barbarian [the object of silence]), was published in 2023, receiving the prestigious Danish debut award. Soon after, it was released in Sweden and Norway.

Bogusława Sochańska

A graduate of Danish philology at Adam Mickiewicz University, BOGUSŁAWA SOCHAŃSKA worked as an assistant and lecturer at its Department of Scandinavian Studies from 1980 to 1995, specialising in Danish literature, translation studies, and the Danish language. From 1995 to 1999, she served as attaché and cultural counsellor at the Polish embassy in Copenhagen, and later as director of the Danish Cultural Institute in Poland (1999–2020). Since 2021, she has run the DRIADA School of Scandinavian Languages and co-managed the Driada Publishing House. Sochańska is a member of the Polish Writers’ Association and the Polish Literary Translators Association.