Scandinavian Fiction Podcast

‘Later she goes over the fields with a cauliflower. Goodbye to those Kong Fu slippers. All roads lead to roads. She carries on into Vestergade, past the front-gardenless houses. A man waves from his breakfast. But when you come from around here, houses aren't front-gardenless.’While Helle Helle was working on the novel they, she started hating the past tense.In this episode, we sit down with Helle in her home in the Danish countryside, outside of Sorø, for a conversation about finding sentences in the woods, knowing your persons (not characters), and her frequent use of an online crossword dictionary.Interview: Rasmus Meldgaard HarboeProducers: James Christensen and Mads Odgaard SmidstrupCover photo: Mikkel CarlOriginal music by James Christensenthey is translated into English by Martin Aitken. Buy here.

'It is the eighteenth of November. I have got used to that thought.'Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume is a work of seven books about Tara Selter, who finds herself stuck in a day that keeps repeating itself.We visit Solvej in her house on the Danish island of Ærø for a conversation about her work, why she is choosing to self-publish her books, and why she believes her English translator is more Tara Selter than Tara Selter.Host: Rasmus Meldgaard HarboeProducers: James Christensen, Stine Emil Thorbøll, and Mads Odgaard SmidstrupOriginal music by James ChristensenOn the Calculation of Volume I-II is translated into English by Barbara J. Haveland.

The Swedish author Elin Cullhed has written a novel based on the life of the American author and poet Sylvia Plath, with whom she has always felt a particular kinship.We're visiting Elin at her house in Uppsala, near Stockholm, on an icy day in January.Host: Rasmus Meldgaard HarboeProducers: James Christensen and Mads Odgaard SmidstrupOriginal music by James ChristensenEuphoria is translated into English by Jennifer Hayashida.Thanks to The Swedish Arts Council for supporting the production of this episode.

We sit down with the author Johanne Lykke Naderehvandi in her home in Malmö, Sweden, for a conversation about her novel Strega, working under time restrictions, and her views on Swedish contemporary literature. Host: Rasmus Meldgaard Harboe Producers: James Christensen and Mads Odgaard Smidstrup Original music by James Christensen Strega is translated into English by Saskia Vogel. Thanks to The Swedish Arts Council for supporting the production of this episode.

When the Danish author Ursula Scavenius needs to escape distractions at home, she boards a train bound for Hornbæk Plantage, north of Copenhagen, to sit and write in her camper van, sometimes for twelve hours in a row. Join us in Denmark, as we make the trip with her, for a conversation about Ursula's life as a writer, the making of her story collection The Dolls, and her ‘room of one's own’. Host: Rasmus Meldgaard Harboe Producers: James Christensen and Mads Odgaard Smidstrup Original music by James Christensen. The Dolls is translated into English by Jennifer Russell.

Family dynamics is a key theme in Vigdis Hjorth's novels. Join us for the second part of our conversation with the prize-winning Norwegian author, recorded in her house on Nesøya. Host: Rasmus Meldgaard Harboe Producers: James Christensen and Mads Odgaard Smidstrup Original music by James Christensen. Will and Testament and Is Mother Dead are translated into English by Charlotte Barslund. Special thanks to NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad) who made the trip to Norway possible.

Through her work, Vigdis Hjorth has ‘a kind of self-conversation’. In this first part of our interview with the prize-winning Norwegian author, we sit down in her house on Nesøya – a small island in Asker, near Oslo – on a snowy afternoon for a conversation about her writing process, Søren Kierkegaard, and alcohol. Host: Rasmus Meldgaard Harboe Producers: James Christensen and Mads Odgaard Smidstrup Original music by James Christensen. Will and Testament is translated into English by Charlotte Barslund. Special thanks to NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad) who made the trip to Norway possible.