Rights Sold to the US
American publisher Deep Vellum has bought the rights to publish the Poetry Collection “Hvat hjálpir einum menniskja at vakna ein morgun hesumegin hetta áratúsundið” by Kim Simonsen in the US.
“Hvat hjálpir einum menniskja at vakna ein morgun hesumegin hetta áratúsundið” (What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium), was originally published in the Faroe Islands by Mentunargrunnur Studentafelagsins in 2013.
The following year, the collection received the National Book Award of the Faroe Islands, M.A. Jacobsen’s Virðisløn. In its citation, the Faroese awards committee noted the broad geographic, scientific, and contextual impetus of the collection.
The structure and scope of the collection was, in many ways, intended to dismantle the traditional concepts of landscape and language that have been nearly inseparable and dominating Faroese art, literature, and identity since the 19th century.
With Simonsen's poetics, he has worked to revitalize the Faroese landscape and consciousness by rendering them part of the wider world while calling into question the foundations of our ways of knowing.
What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the new millennium is forthcoming in Danish translation and was released in Macedonian translation by PNV Publishing in 2021. Where it also won an award in 2022 (for a series of books).
Excerpts from this collection have been featured at the STANZA Poetry Festival in Scotland, the TRANSPOESIE Festival in Brussels, Belgium, and the Skopje Poetry Festival in Macedonia.
Randi Ward has translated the Poetry Collection. The American-Scandinavian Foundation recently awarded Randi Ward the Nadia Christensen Prize for her translation of this work.
Deep Vellum is among 20 of the biggest publishers in the US. Their books are reviewed in New York Times, LA Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal etc.
