NAPP

Each year, four youth-driven editorial teams in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland collaborate to create a cross-Nordic anthology featuring the very best unprescribed poetry from the region—Nordens Allerbedste Pensumløse Poesi (NAPP). In Denmark, the youth-led NAPP editorial team is based at Poesiens Hus, working together to explore the theater of contemporary Danish poetry. They aim to go behind the scenes with various literary figures to gain deeper insight into the poetry of the year. Since November 2020, a new youth editorial team has gathered each autumn to continue this work.

As the leaves turn yellow and red, the young editors meet every Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. to read the poetry published throughout the nearly completed year. Across national borders, they collaboratively curate a remarkable Nordic anthology that captures a lyrical snapshot of that specific year. The youth editorial teams have hosted guests such as critic Tue Andersen Nexø, publisher Christel Sunesen, poet Jens Kæmpe, the literary collective BMS, and Danish teacher June Clausager Thomsen—each of whom has contributed to sharpening their reading skills and deepening their curiosity about contemporary poetry.

All poems are published in their original languages alongside English translations, ensuring that both readers and the young editors can experience the distinct tonal expressions of the various Nordic languages.

The NAPP anthology is published by the nonprofit publishing house Ordskælv, in collaboration with its Nordic sister organizations: Ordskjelv in Norway, Ordskalv in Sweden, and Orðskjálfti in Iceland.

Find out more about their projects by clicking here.

Below you can view their anthologies from 2022 and 2023:

Anthology 2022

Anthology 2023

The project is part of the subtheme Poetry and the Digital Commons - New platforms, new audiences.