Sigri Mitra Gaïni

Who is Sigri Mitra Gaïni?

Sigri Mitra Gaïni is a Faroese poet, actress and school teacher. She grew up in Norway and in the Faroe Islands. She has published four collections with poems, written in Faroese. In 2004 she won the Faroese Literature Prize in the category Fiction for her poem collection "2002 nætur". The title means 2002 nights. Four of her poems have been chosen for the Faroese school books Les 2 and Les 3, they are for teaching in the Faroese language in the public schools. She represents the younger generation of female poets. In 2011 she got two months wage from the Faroese government, which gives from a few months up to three years. The wage is called Starvsløn and is handed by a foundation, which is called Mentanargrunnurin. Faroese artists must apply in order to get this wage Starvsløn. Not every applicant gets a wage, there were 98 people who applied in 2011, 26 got 1 to 4 months wage, five people got starvsløn from 6 months to one year. The idea is that the artists can take leave from their job and use all their time to their art for some months or years. The longest period someone has got this kind of wage was for three years, it was given in 2010 to the composer Tróndur Bogason. She played one of the main characters in Katrin Ottarsdóttir's Faroese/Danish movie Bye Bye Bluebird in 1999. She played the role as Barba. The film was a comedy and a road movie. The film won several awards i.e. a Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2000. The film was also nominated for the Norwegian Amanda Award but did not win it.