Debora Hansen Kleist: The current of life and the intoxicating taste of oil

Deborah Hansen Kleist (1989, Qaqortoq) is a Greenlandic writer and geologist and one of the prominent voices of the rising generation of contemporary literature. She made her debut with the short story “Olieeventyret” (The Oil Adventure) in the anthology Allatta! 2040 (Let’s Write! 2040, 2015), which presented texts by young Greenlandic authors reflecting on the future of the country. She entered the literary scene in a major way with the novel Sarsuatitat (Livets strøm, The Current of Life, 2024), nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2026. A distinctive feature of her work is the combination of literature with her professional background in geology. Her deep knowledge of landscape, natural processes, and long-term transformations of the earth is reflected in her writing, which sensitively captures the relationship between human beings and environment, time, and place. In her texts, she reflects the experience of a younger generation, questions of identity, and tensions between Greenland and Denmark, while her style is characterised by a lyrical, rhythmic language and strong imagery.