Bo Michaëlis: Copenhagen Noir

KRISTIAN LUNDBERG(b. 1966) is a lyricist and writer from over there -Sweden-where he has gained notoriety with his crossover and extremely experimental crime series about his hometown, Malmø, a city on the edge of dissolution as an axis for borderless crime in the new Europe. Policeman Nils Forsberg is at the center of the books, which include Eldätaren (The Fire-Eater, 2004), Grindväktaren (The Gatekeeper, 2005) and Malmømannen (The Malmø Man, 2009).

BO TAO MICHAËLIS(b. 1948) received his master’s degree in comparative literature and classical culture from the University of Copenhagen, where he now teaches. He is a cultural critic at the Danish newspaper Politiken , and has written books on crime fiction, Raymond Chandler, and Ernest Hemingway; and papers about Dashiell Hammett, Paul Auster, and several other American writers.

SEYIT ÖZTÜRK(b. 1980) won second prize in a writing contest for “new Danes,” for his short story “Where I’m Sitting Now,” which appeared in the anthology New Voices (2007). Öztürk is of Turkish descent, and has lived most of his life in Valby, more recently moving to Nørrebro.

SIMON PASTERNAK(b. 1971) and CHRISTIAN DORPH(b. 1966) have attracted considerable attention in the Danish crime fiction community with their novels In a Moment in Heaven (2005), The Edge of the Abyss (2007), and I’m Not Here (2010), which have been translated into six languages.

KLAUS RIFBJERG(b. 1931) has been a major fixture in Danish literature over the past fifty years. He was born and raised in Amager, in Eberts Villaby.

GUNNAR STAALESEN(b. 1947), a Norwegian author residing in Bergen, is known and loved for his Bergen trilogy (First Blush of Dawn, High Noon, and Evening Song) and several volumes of crime fiction starring private detective Varg Veum.

SUSANNE STAUN(b. 1957) has made a name for herself in the Danish crime fiction scene with her books about the profiling expert Fanny Fiske, the latest of which is My Girls (2008).

KRISTINA STOLTZ(b. 1975) has written three volumes of poetry, books for children, and the novel The Tourist Hotel (2006). Her second novel, Human Track , will be published in 2011. She has lived in bohemian Nørrebro most of her adult life.

GEORG URSIN(b. 1934), a former public servant, had his literary debut at the age of seventy-one with the Kafka-esque crime novel Cherlein and Schmidt (2005). He has since written four more crime novels, the latest of which is Murder at the Museum (2009), all of them highly acclaimed. The Danish Crime Writers Academy honored Ursin in 2008 for The Anonymous Movement .