Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen is a fiction writer, essayist, and literary translator. Her work focuses – often through experimental and cross-disciplinary collaborations – on themes such as the relationship between humans and nature, rethinking the individual, myths and transformation, climate change and time, as well as memory, and belonging.
Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen made her literary debut in 2016 with the novel Island, which was shortlisted for the Bogforum Debutant Prize and selected to represent Denmark at the international First Novel Festival in Budapest. Island has been published in a number of languages and been awarded the international MarEtica award.
In 2018, Siri published the hybrid work The Sea Letters, which was shortlisted for the Schade Prize and has inspired artists both in Denmark and abroad. For example, Danish artist Hanna Schneider has released the critically acclaimed album Ocean Letters inspired by The Sea Letters, and in 2024, the Italian theatre company Teatro della Sete premiered a performance based on the book.
Most recently, Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen published the hybrid novel The Daphne Syndrome, a sensuous fusion of sci-fi, Greek mythology, and poetry about transformation, escape, and transcending oneself to become one with nature.
In 2024, she was awarded the Three-Year Work Grant by the Danish Arts Foundation. The motivation included the following:
“Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen engages with universal themes such as belonging (both geographical and familial), home, and changeability, but does so with such originality that her literature feels like an entirely new genre.”