Author Talk with Ane Riel

Ane Riel discusses her literary work, drawing on her novel Urværk and short story collection Små stød. At Langeland Library, she explores the themes that recur in her writing, what sparked these two books, and what makes them personally significant. She will also speak openly about her writing process, which has rarely been straightforward.

Her prose is typically rooted in small communities and populated by unconventional lives. Riel describes her field as the unpredictable space between the normal and the grotesque, between humour and profound seriousness, between idyll and dread - and she is preoccupied with imagining the inner lives of people whose experiences differ from her own.

Riel (b. 1971) has published the novels The Butcher in Liseleje (2013), Resin (2015), Beast (2019) and Urværk (2021), and the short story collection Små stød (2023). Her books have been translated into 31 languages, and she has received 7 literary prizes with 14 nominations.