A short summary in English -
- for international friends, supporters and customers
My life and my work: Like a patchwork of many parts, but all wowen with the same thread - a passion for words, written and spoken, for language and and the world(s) it brings to us.
A writer, poet, teacher, editor, storyteller for business and more
I was born in 1973 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since childhood, words and stories have meant the world to me - both litterary and figururativaly, since meeting the world has brought me a lot of stories and vice versa - literature has brought and continues to bring sense to my world.
Being educated in Creative Writing from the Danish Scool of fine Arts (The Writers' School - Forfatterskolen), I published my first collection of poems in 1994, Tilbage bliver - (What remains is), with memory as the principle theme. The collectionwas awarded the Debutant Prize that same year at Copenhagen's Book Fair. Followed by another collection of poems, Istudied litterature for a while at the university, but happened to go travelling and never made it back there. Meso-Amerioca and Asia means the world to me, especially India. I am plainly in love with the subcontinents's culture and people - and well, yes, that's where I meet my husband too. He's from Canada, by the way.
A third collection of journey-inspired poems came out, then a book of prose on becomming a mother - and, well, yes, I drew from own experiences writing them both. In 2011 the longest collection of poems so far - inspired by mythology from all corners of the world - and especially what those Big Stories have in common.
The latest news on books from me: Breve fra en Indiensfarer - The Letters of an India-roamer: Travel-Tales of Time, Mind and Family - is out in September 2015. Now with a family of husband, two kids, ages 6 and 9 ,"the scene of crime" was revisited - a journey that also included Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand. We are raising our family in the kingdom of Denmark, and are happy here, butperspective and dimensions are important to us, hence the trip.Most of the material in the seven letters (app. 300 pages) was written on the road.
.When I don't write and travel I teach creative writing with a strong passion for showing people of all agegroups (age 11-88) the power that words have - if you let them. My chance to say thank you to the English language for the word, 'spelling', by the way, meaning not only getting the letters in the right order, but also 'putting a spell on' - a Norse tradition from the age of the runes (you cast runes to invoke magic - like you do a spell). And thank you, English for giving us the word'clue' - from the old Nordic word, 'clew', meaning a ball of yarn. If you have a clue, you have a thread - and there you go: find your way out of any labyrinth, mythological, physical or mental.
This is also one of the reasons you find those close-ups of sari-patches on my front page here: Words can weave the world, I believe. The notions of time, family, mythology and the art of memory are my prime inspirations
I edit as well, a very gratifying and sense-making task, since I know how important editing is - the editor's thread is, and must be, invisible, seamless, if you will. But none the less important.My job is bringing out the best in any manuscript, be it from a talent still unknown or an established colleague.
And yet another part of the fabric of my work life is bringing together arts and business - I have an year-long education in innovation and experience with storytelling as a tool to create profound change in people, organizations and product-making. Working with companies that use English as a corporate language, I write in both Danish and English.
I love the physical dimension of creating beautifully written letters - the art of calligraphy. I an age where all is electronic and cyber-hyped, I'm still going strong at writing long-hand. Not all the time, not for all purposes (needless to say to you, who is reading this) - but as a means of reflection and meditation. After all, unique penmanship, in the original sense of the word of putting pen to paper, is perhaps the only physical aspect of being a writer. And will have a revival, one fine day, I believe: the more different fonts and characters we can download, the more unique a hand-held message, place-card or love letter becomes.
It's my ambition and intention the Gods willing to, one fine day have a book in this 'lingua franca' to present to you, an international audience. Until then, thanks for stopping by Iben Claces/Iben Indiaroamer. The latter 'Iben Indiensfarer' under 'Om mig' has some pictures if you feel like checking them out and although I do NOT believe that a picture says more than a 1000 words, feel free to check like .) And if you need storytelling for business purposes or a teacher in creative writing, let me know.
Thanks for stopping by.