2025 - Solvej Balle
Solvej Balle (b. 1962) is one of Denmark’s most prominent contemporary writers.
Since the publication of her first book Lyrebird in 1986, she has written several volumes of poetic prose and a book of four interlinked short stories, According to the Law: Four Accounts of Mankind (1993). Her latest works are the five first books of a septology On the Calculation of Volume, a speculative novel about a woman trapped in the 18th of November. In 2005 she moved from Copenhagen to the small island of Ærø, where she founded the publishing house Pelagraf. In 2022, Solvej Balle was awarded the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Prize and in 2024, the grand prize of the Danish Academy.
She studied at the Danish Writers’ school from 1987 to 89, and has a BA in philosophy from University of Copenhagen and a MA in philosophy from University of Southern Denmark.
The plan for the residency in Brussels is to work on book 6 and 7 of On the calculation of volume – maybe finishing book 6 – but also to get a feel of what it is like living in the city of origin of Tara Selter, the main character of the book.