Lise Bach Hansen (based in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

) is head of the live literature program at The Royal Library, Denmark. She organizes and hosts literary conversations for the library’s public program series: International Authors' Stage. Since 2008 the program has turned The Royal Library into Copenhagen’s principal venue for live conversations, featuring international writers, intellectuals, politicians and artists. She is an advocate of cultural diplomacy, contributing to periodicals on economics and politics.

Early life and education

Lise Bach Hansen was born in

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

, Denmark. Her father, Søren Christian Hansen (1945–1993), was a playwright, novelist and documentalist. She is the mother of two daughters. Their father is the German composer

Steingrimur Rohloff Steingrímur Rohloff (born 1971) is an Icelandic-German composer. Early life Rohloff was born in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1971, to an Icelandic mother and a German father. Rohloff studied composition with Krzysztof Meyer at the Hochschule für Mu ...

. Hansen has received a master's degree, a Mémoire de Diplome d’Etudes Aproffondie from the Ecole Doctorale at Université Paris X, Nanterre University and Université Paris III,

La Sorbonne The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), Metonymy, metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revo ...

. Her memoir compared 17th-century French classical theatre with the works of the Danish playwright Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754) considered to be the founder of Danish and Norwegian literature. In 2000 she earned a master's degree in Communication from Roskilde University in Denmark.

The Royal Library

In 2008, Hansen founded "International Forfatterscene", a conversation series with writers, intellectuals, artists and politicians. As head of the series and of a program for students, "Students Only!", Hansen has developed conversations with international personalities, including

Alex Schulman Carl Magnus Alexander Schulman (born 17 February 1976 in Hemmesdynge) is a Swedish author, journalist, blogger and television and radio personality. His career started when he created the website Stureplan.se in 2005. The same year he had a reo ...

, Kofi Annan, Dario Fo,

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...

Siri Hustvedt Siri Hustvedt (born February 19, 1955) is an American novelist and essayist. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, seven novels, two books of essays, and several works of non-fiction. Her books include ''The Blindfold'' (1992), ''The Ench ...

Bernard-Henri Lévy Bernard-Henri Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the " Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, political acti ...

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...

, Thomas Piketty,

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (born Graß; ; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Da ...

and

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...

. She has worked in partnership with such organizations as Siemens, PEN, UN, Institut Français and The Goethe Institute.

Career

Before founding The International Authors Stage at The Royal Library in Copenhagen, she was involved in communication and public relations within professional fields such as film, art, theatre and politics in both Paris and Copenhagen and she has held positions at

The European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

in Brussels and the Danish art gallery, Kunstforeningen Gl. Strand in Copenhagen. Her interest in French language, politics and culture has influenced her career and she striven to present French artists, thinkers and writers to a Danish audience both through her writing and in her programming. She was behind an extensive initiative project for translating six of Ludvig Holberg¨s plays from Danish into modern French. The project was made in collaboration with La Maison Antoine Vitez in France and the translations were published by Editions Théâtrales in Paris. On January 18, 2018, she received the French order Arts et Lettres at the French embassy in Copenhagen. Throughout her professional life, she has undertaken cultural exchange projects in the Nordic Region. Nordic values on sustainability, cultural heritage, gender equality and climate protection have been priorities which resulted in the book and the transatlantic project ''Arctic Imagination''. developed in cooperation with

Paul Holdengräber Paul Bernard Holdengräber (born March 15, 1960) is an American interviewer, curator and writer. He was director of the New York Public Library's public programming and organized literary conversations for the NYPL's public program series, ''LIVE ...

Publications

Her writings on contemporary cultural tendencies have been published in the European cultural magazine, ', as well as in Danish newspapers such as ', ', ' and French magazines such as ', ' and ''P:U:C:K''. She was the editor-in-chief of the Danish cultural magazine ', contributing articles on literature and cultural heritage. In October 2019 her book, ', was published by Djøf Forlag. Her co-writer is Barbara Læssøe Stephensen. The book is about how to curate great live events and how to launch innovative artistic visions. Aimed at both students and professionals, it is based on her experience in the field, as well as on her research into international examples of best practice, while drawing on her theoretical background in dramaturgy, communication, rhetoric and literature.

Early life and education

The Royal Library

Career

Publications

References

External links