Since the 1960s Inger Christensen has been one of the most important and most popular poets in Denmark. Her contribution to Danish literature includes novels, short stories, essays, plays (for stage, radio, and television), and children's books; but she is best known for her poetry. Christensen has published six volumes of poetry, each successive volume gaining her greater recognition as a poet of remarkable originality. Her poetry appeals to a wide audience: politicians and political demonstrators alike have quoted from some of her well-known poems, and two of her collections have been set to music.

Inger Christensen was born on 16 January 1935, the daughter of Adolf Christensen, a tailor, and Erna Christensen, a factory worker. She was raised in a working-class neighborhood of Vejle, a provincial town in Jutland. The first in her family to attend a gymnasium, a secondary school that prepares students for the university, Christensen recalls...