Ulrika S. Gernes is daughter of the artist Poul Gernes, who has designed the cover for many of her books. She was eighteen when she was first published in the literary magazine Hvedekorn in 1983, and the following year her debut work of poetry Natsværmer was published, a collection of sensuous young poems about love, in continuation of the poetic tradition of 1980s lyric poetry. Characteristic of her poems is a grandiose, extravagant, passionate form of expression filled with wild birds, angels, darkness, and stars.
She is clearly inspired by Edith Södergran, and this is especially evident in the collection Engleklør, 1985. Her other works are Skriftsteder, 1989, Gribbenes himmel, 1993, Amnesia, 1995, with illustrations by Linda Orloff, and Til, 1995. The poems are set within a conflict between delicate, erotic poetry consisting of soft kisses, brittle infatuation, rainbow bodies, and silent experience, and a wild, fiery, and devouring quest in the body and the world at large for “the scripture of creation”. She has been sharply criticised for her verbosity and pompous language, but has not been put off by a little rough treatment and still explores new avenues in her experience and discovery of the world of words and love.
Additions by the editorial team 2011:
The above biography was first published in 1998. Since then, Ulrikka S. Gernes has written the poetry collections Kamikaze, 1999, and En aften med Ulrikka S. Gernes, 2005. She has also written children’s books.