Jens Peter Olsen: They say you can easily mistake the call of a fox for a human cry of “mum”

Jens Peter Olsen (1969, Akunnaaq) is a Greenlandic writer and teacher who has spent his entire life in the small settlement of Akunnaaq in Disko Bay. His work draws on oral traditions and stories he has heard since childhood, which he transforms into contemporary literary form with a deep understanding of the Greenlandic spirit. One of the central themes of his writing is the figure of the qivittoq, a legendary mountain wanderer (outcast spirit) deeply rooted in Greenlandic mythology. Olsen’s work Qivittoq (The Mountain Spirit), published in a trilingual edition (Greenlandic, Danish, and English), introduces this traditional figure to modern readers while preserving Inuit cultural heritage. Olsen is the recipient of the honorary Frederik Nielsen Prize (2014).