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In this episode, Niviaq Korneliussen talks about how her book was perceived in different ways depending on its readers'nationalities (05:40), the discovery of her homosexuality during her teenage years (13:40), writing as a powerful refuge (20:25), Greenland’s recent political history (23:49), her coming out (28:56), her experience of racism in Denmark (31:50), the impact of a gender neutral language on imagination (38:50), Greenlanders’ fluid sexuality before colonisation (42:08), the quest for identity and the suffering it brings (46:39) and the necessity to tackle Greenland society’s problems up front (49:19).

Niviaq Korneliussen is a writer from Greenland and the author of the astonishing Crimson, published in English in 2018 by Virago. In her book, she tackles powerful questions about identity and sexuality through young urban Greenlander characters. Crimson has made its mark on Greenlander literature which had rarely been read across borders. Born in 1990 in Nanortalik, in South Greenland, Niviaq Korneliussen was raised there before leaving to study social sciences in Greenland’s capital Nuuk’s university, and then psychology in Aarhus’s in Denmark. Her talent was first spotted during a short story competition in 2012. In 2014 she published her first novel, Crimson. Niviaq Korneliussen wrote it in Greenland’s language, Kalaallisut, then translated it herself into Danish. Quickly successful, it sold more than 3000 copies in Greenland alone - a record for this island inhabited by only 56 000 people.

This episode was recorded at the hotel Des Quatrans in Caen.

Lauren Bastide met Niviaq Korneliussen thanks to the festival Les Boréales, which takes place in Normandy, France.

The extract in the intro is Virgina Woolf’s voice, recorded by the BBC on the 29th of April 1937.

Executive Producer : Nouvelles Écoutes.

Production and signature tune : Aurore Meyer-Mahieu.

Production assistant : Zisla Tortello.

Mixing : Laurie Galligani.