Pia Tafdrup

Pia Tafdrup was born in 1952 in Copenhagen. She has published over 20 books in Danish since her first collection appeared in 1981, and her work has been translated into many languages. Her fourth collection, Spring Tide, was published in English by Forest in 1989. In 1991 she published a celebrated statement of her poetics, Walking Over Water. She received the 1999 Nordic Council Literature Prize – Scandinavia’s most prestigious literary award – for Queen's Gate, which was published in David McDuff’s English translation by Bloodaxe in 2001. Also in 2001, she was appointed a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, and in 2006 she received the Nordic Prize from the Swedish Academy.

Most of Pia Tafdrup's poetry collections have been linked by themes, including The Salamander Quartet (2002–2012). Written over ten years, its ﬁrst two parts were The Whales in Paris and Tarkovsky’s Horses, translated by David McDuff and published by Bloodaxe in 2010 as Tarkovsky’s Horses and other poems. This was followed in 2015 by Salamander Sun and other poems, McDuff’s translation of The Migrant Bird’s Compass and Salamander Sun, the third and fourth parts of the quartet. In 2014 she published the first volume in a quintet of books about the five senses, Smagen af stål (The Taste of Steel), which was followed by Lugten af sne (The Smell of Snow). These two were brought together by Bloodaxe in one volume in David McDuff's translation in 2021 as The Taste of Steel • The Smell of Snow. The third, fourth and fifth volumes were Synet af lys (2018), Lyden af skyer (2020) and Berøringen af skyer (2022), combined in in one volume in David McDuff's translation, The Sight of Light • The Sound of Clouds • The Touch of Skin (Bloodaxe Books, due 2025).