Tove Ditlevsen

Tove Ditlevsen is one of the most original and important voices in Danish literature. He was born in Copenhagen in 1917 in a working-class neighborhood. He started writing at the age of ten and published more than twenty books, ranging from novels to short stories, poetry and autobiographical genre. He received the most important prizes in Danish letters, such as the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat, in 1953, and the De Gyldne Laurbær, in 1956.
From an early age, Ditlevsen had to deal with the tension between her vocation as a writer and her roles as a daughter, wife and mother, as well as with her condition as an addict – central themes of her work – which led her to write about the female experience and identity in a way that was far ahead of her time and still pertinent to current discussions around feminism.
With a difficult life marked by several divorces and mental health problems, Tove Ditlevsen would eventually commit suicide in 1976, at the age of 58.