Høgni Mohr
Høgni Mohr (born in Tórshavn 8 October 1968) is a Faroese author and journalist. His book Fractura Nasi was the best selling book in 2017 throughout the Faroe Islands.  Fractura Nasi was translated into Danish 2019 by Kirsten Brix and published by Amanda Books. Danish title: Rejse for livet. The novel was sold to movie production in 2018.

Career 

Mohr has worked for newspapers in the Faroes and has been published in Danish and Icelandic national newspapers. He spent several years working as a radio and TV reporter with Faroese national broadcaster Kringvarp Føroya. He has also worked for the BBC and Al Jazeera and has hosted nature programmes for Vice Media, as well as being a correspondent to the Huffington Post.

His literary works are published in Faroese and Danish.

Mohr’s signature work, Saga JAM, 2022 
Saga JAM, a novelised biography about Mohr’s old friend Jan-Allan Müller, sparked a heated debate in the Faroes after its publication in September 2022.

“The book sent ripples through our small puddle,” Ingi Rasmussen, the culture editor of Faroese national broadcaster KvF, said at the time.

"Saga JAM is about the frantic life of footballer turned businessman Jan-Allan Müller. It goes into details based on the author’s talks with Jan-Allan and covers experiences from his childhood to the point where he is sentenced for financial fraud and towards the end includes the death of his father.”

Shortly after the book was published, Jan-Allan issued the following statement:

“Last week, Høgni Mohr published Saga JAM. The author describes the book as a biographical novel about me. I want to state, in the strongest possible terms, that I distance myself from the contents of this book.”

In response to Müller’s statement, Mohr told KvF:

"(...) I wrote the book because I am an author."

In a subsequent radio interview, the author said:

"Regarding the relationship I have with the Jan-Allan you mention – the real person – in the context of Saga JAM, this is something I would rather keep to myself. But I will say that this book has not changed my relationship with the real person. It is not my business as an author to expose persons or disclose intimate stories. I have no ideals. I have no specific objectives, and I’m not promoting any particular way of living. I feel no need to promote anything. I am not trying to achieve anything. All I want with my writing is to extract some building blocks from reality and weave them into my personal style of poetry. My hope is that this turns into art that transcends the constraints of the material world and the social considerations that are represented in Faroese literature.”

Literary scholar Lydia Didriksen described the book and the strong social media reactions to it thus:

"What is causing all the rage is that some people know Jan-Allan Müller – the real person, not the fictionalised version portrayed in the book. Many of these people haven’t even read the book. These reactions are largely based on their preconceived notion that the author has written a biography that takes no liberties with the facts.”

Didriksen adds:

"The Jan-Allan Müller portrayed in the text is not the same person who walks among us. He is a fictionalised person in a fictionalised world. The person in the book is listed in the register of some Danish city.”

KvF’s initial coverage of the book was part of its radio culture programme ‘Ljóarin’, broadcast on 29 September 2022.

In another KvF radio programme, lawyer Jógvan Páll Lassen was asked about the legal implications of publishing a biography without formal approval from the person named in the book:

"I read many examples (...) that made me think that the author has overstepped the mark by portraying details about internal family matters which are absolutely unsuitable for publication.”

The book was also discussed in another KvF programme, which caused even more heated debate. Here, former culture minister Tórbjørn Jacobsen lashed out at KvF for inviting four people into the studio to review the book, none of whom had read the book.

Later that day, Jacobsen expressed his views about the programme on his Facebook profile:

"KvF’s new book review section of its morning radio show… what can I say? Inviting book reviewers into the studio who have not read the book in question – it’s an original approach, I’ll give them that. Book reviewers were rushed in from across the islands to talk to two radio hosts. Their task was to inform 54,000 Faroese people about the essence of Høgni Mohr’s new book, Saga JAM.

None of the guests had read the book and, what’s even worse, the hosts hadn’t read it either. Isn’t it rather absurd that KvF, a public service institution, broadcasts a book review in which all the reviewers admit that they haven’t actually read the book? I’m tempted to think that this is just a revenge attack against the author because he has written critical remarks about his former workplace (KvF).

I have read the book, and I cannot in any way relate to this so-called review in KvF’s new farcical section of their morning radio show.”

The former culture minister went on to review the book himself and rated it five out of six stars. He said he left out the sixth star because the book contained too many swear words.

From Jacobsen’s review:

"The book contains intimate details. We are told about what takes place below and above the sheets and about men who drive drunk with hard-ons, desperate to use their tool. This may not be unusual – for regular humans, the genitals may occasionally take on a will of their own. In this case, however, out-of-control genitals may be used to enhance the reading experience. You may ask yourself whether the book is an intertwining of the lives of several persons and whether the author himself perhaps plays a part in some of the juicy scenes.”

Sjúrður Skaale, a Faroese comedian who is also a member of the Danish Parliament, also reviewed Saga JAM, praising it to the skies:

"So, what the hell are we supposed to do with this book – this abscess of unfiltered honesty that Høgni Mohr has flung into our faces?

And what the hell are we supposed to do with Høgni Mohr – this kamikaze pilot, who yet again has penetrated our comfort zone and is, again, deliberately grinding himself through the great gossip mill?

I don’t know; I really don’t know.

I can, at least, borrow a sentence which Jan-Allan Müller told the author in the book:

“You are always alone, my friend.”

Saga JAM became a best-seller, ranking second on the 2022 sales list of the major Faroese book retailers. 

The manager of book retailer Rit & Rák said:

"The best-selling book in 2022 was Leivur Hansen’s tragic biography about Deana, who vanished in Greenland in 1966. In second place was Høgni Mohr’s controversial biographical novel Saga JAM, with Jógvan Isaksen’s crime novel Halgigripaskrínið in third."

Despite Saga JAM becoming a best-seller and receiving critical praise, Høgni Mohr was not present at the annual book fair in Tórshavn’s Nordic House, which took place two months after the book’s publication.

Bibliography 

  OCLC 475920953
  OCLC 762372543. Documentary book about the lifelong journey from birth to death at the national hospital in the Faroe Islands.
  OCLC 1012884471 A narrative and poetic non-fiction road trip story. Faroe Islands best selling book in 2017. Danish translation: Rejse for livet (2019).
  With illustrations by Astrid Andreasen.
Mohr, Høgni (2019). mær dámar ikki høgna hoydal (in Faroese). Øgiliga egið forlag. .
Mohr, Høgni (2020). Tað tómliga tolsemið (in Faroese). Øgiliga egið forlag. 
Mohr, Høgni (2021). Grøðandi greinir (in Faroese). Øgiliga egið forlag. ISBN 9789991880563
Mohr, Høgni (2022). Saga JAM (in Faroese). Øgiliga egið forlag. ISBN 9789991880570 
Mohr, Høgni (2022). Where have all the ploughers gone?  - Manuscript for movie about the Faroese horse

Filmography 

 2013 - Summarsál (documentary series), 6 episodes, creator, director and host
 2014 - Fall for ewe (short film), creator
 2014 - Fat birds are easy pray: Fulmar hunting in the Faroe Islands (documentary), host
 2021 - 111 good days (film), in the cast as himself
 2022 - Starin í stovuni (documentary), director and producer

Radio specials 

 2019 - Gamli maðurin og vatnið (radio series), 4 episodes, creator

Awards, nominations etc. 

 2012 – 6-months grant from the Mentanargrunnur Landsins (Faroese Cultural Fund)
 2014 – Nominated for the Faroese national short film award Geytin for the short film, "Fall for Ewe". 
 2019 – 6-months grant from the Mentanargrunnur Landsins (Faroese Cultural Fund)
 2019 – 6-months grant from the Mentanargrunnur Landsins (Faroese Cultural Fund)
 2019 – Art grant from the Åland Cultural Committee for a art stay at the historic Eckerö_Mail_and_Customs_House

References 

1968 births
Living people
Faroese writers