The Prince Henrik Prize 2024

The jury's speech

Abstract

The article consists of the speech given by Louise Mønster in connection with the awarding of the Prince Henrik Prize 2024 to Ursula Andkjær Olsen. The speech explains the jury’s choice of the prizewinner who is highlighted for her original writing which has contributed significantly to the expansion of the poetic genre in Denmark. It describes how Andkjær Olsen’s writing is infused with philosophy, music and visual art and includes different art forms and media. Her work is highlighted for its experimental and expansive approach to the poetic genre, and she is characterized as a writer who emphasizes the cohesion of opposites and whose poetry is eminently multifaceted and engaged. Her works turn both inwards to the human being and outwards to the world, and is particularly interested in the connections, networks and relationships between them. As such, her poetry is also described as universalistic, not on the terms of Romanticism, but on the terms of the modern world. It is a poetry that plunges into, absorbs, contemplates and resents the chaotic and complex reality.