Janne Teller

The work of the well-known Danish writer Janne Teller deals with philosophical questions that have given rise to controversy and heated debates, both inside and outside Denmark. She has published diverse novels, notable amongst which are the Nordic saga Odin’s Island (Atlantic Books, 2006; published in Spanish as La Isla de Odín, Seix Barral 1999) in which she speaks of political fanaticism, War, What If It Were Here? (Simon & Schuster, 2016) published in Catalan (Comanegra 2016) and in Spanish (Seix Barral 2016) and the existentialist novel Nothing (Simon & Schuster, 2012; published in Catalan as No-res (Comanegra 2013) and in Spanish as Nada, (Seix Barral 2011) which, initially banned in Denmark, is now considered to be a reference work of young people’s literature, and is recommended in Scandinavian schools. With work translated into more than thirty languages, Janne Teller has received numerous awards, among them the prestigious Michael L. Printz Award for Young People’s Literature, and the Danish Drassow’s Literary Peace Prize. She is also an activist and, in 2013, was one of the organisers of the campaign Writers Against Mass Surveillance. An economist by training, she has lived in different parts of the world, working in the fields of conflict resolution and humanitarian issues in such diverse places as Tanzania, Mozambique and Bangladesh. In 1995, she resigned from her post with the United Nations in order to write full time.