Ebba Hentze

1930 - 2015

Faroe Islands

Ebba Hentze went to Denmark in 1947 for her upper secondary school education, despite strong objections. She studied languages and comparative literature in Scandinavia and Europe and has worked as a translator, a publishing assistant, and for Danish, Faroese, and Swedish radio. She has lived on the Faroe Islands since the mid-1970s.

Ebba Hentze made her debut with poems in Hvedekorn in 1953. In her novels Antonia og Morgenstjernen, 1981, Antonia midt i det hele, 1982, Bjørns søn, 1983, and Mia, skúlagenta i Havn, 1987, she describes the imaginary world of the child. The status of unmarried women in the family is the theme in “Kata, ein seinkaður nekrologur” (Kata, a late obituary), printed in the magazine Brá, 1984. The same magazine printed her short story “Juli”, 1986.

Ebba Hentze has translated a large number of English, American, German, Swedish, and Norwegian books into Danish – partly using a pseudonym – and has been very instrumental in bringing Faroese literature to readers abroad.