Writer, poet, and linguist born in Narsaq (Greenland) in 1982.
Katti Frederiksen was born on March 12th, 1982, in Narsaq (Greenland), where she spent her childhood. She is the daughter of Suka K. Frederiksen, a politician, and Sophus Frederiksen, a sheep and cattle farmer. In 2004, she moved to Nuuk to pursue studies in Greenlandic language and literature, as well as in communications, at the University of Greenland (Ilisimatusarfik). She graduated with a BA in 2007 and an MA in 2011. During her studies, she developed an acute awareness of the importance of the Greenlandic language in defending and promoting her country’s culture and identity, particularly among younger generations. This awareness was nurtured by a semester abroad at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2009.
Before the conclusion of her studies, Katti Frederiksen had already embarked on a professional career, fueled by a constant ambition: the transmission of the Greenlandic language and culture through creative writing – her own and that of others, which she supports – and through teaching. In 2006, she published a collection of poems and short stories, Uummatima kissaa, the title of which can mean both “The warmth of my heart” and “The desire of my heart.” One of the poems in this collection, which tackles the question of Greenlandic identity, was translated into Danish and published in the newspaper Information, along with texts written by Lana Hansen and Jessie Kleemann, in the context of the Nuuk poetry festival. The same year, Katti Frederiksen founded her own publishing house, Iperaq, which specializes in youth and children’s literature. Iperaq allowed her to both promote local literature and introduce Greenlanders to literature from abroad. In December 2013, Iperaq was the first to publish Rasmus Klump’s Christmas Book in book format in Greenlandic (Kalaallisut); Rasmus Klump is a famous 1950s Danish comic strip. Katti Frederiksen also pursued her own creative writing activities, publishing poems in the Copenhagen Writers’ School (Forfatterskolen) magazine Legenda in 2010, then authoring and editing a second, bilingual (Kalaallisut, English) collection of poetry, 100% Eskimo Inuk, in 2012. Kirsten Thisted, a scholar of Greenlandic literature, took a keen interest in this collection: she interviewed Katti Frederiksen about it in 2013, and it was the topic of an article she published in 2016.
Katti Frederiksen’s interest in her country’s youth also led her to become a secondary school teacher in 2007-2008. The following year, she began working for the Language Secretariat of Greenland (Oqaasileriffik), to which she had already referred in her academic research. In this capacity, she documented the evolution of Kalaallisut and was involved in various projects, including the development of the first Kalaallisut-English dictionary written from a Greenlandic perspective (Kalaallisut-Tuluttut Ordbogi). Between 2015 and 2020, she served as director of the Language Secretariat. Her expertise in data collection, editing, proofreading, and distribution enabled her to start her own Greenlandic language and culture consulting business, Iperaq Consult, in June 2021. Throughout the 2010s, Katti Frederiksen’s dual status as writer and linguist allowed her to participate, as both a lecturer and representative, in the activities of the Katuaq Cultural Centre and the Greenlandic Writers’ Association (Kalaallit Atuakkiortut).
Katti Frederiksen’s convictions and her community involvement prompted her to pursue a political career: although she never had previously held an elected office, she was appointed Greenland’s Minister for Education, Culture and Church on November 5th, 2020, and thus took over the leadership of the ministry responsible for the Language Secretariat of Greenland. The April 2021 legislative elections put an end to the coalition between Demokraatit, Nunatta Qitornai (literally: “the descendants of our country”), and Siumut, the social-democratic party with which Katti Frederiksen was affiliated, and she returned to civil life. Also in 2021, she was awarded the Vigdís Prize; this annual prize of six million Icelandic króna, named after former Icelandic president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, honoured her work on the Greenlandic language.
A mother of three and a marathon runner, Katti Frederiksen has continued to pursue her various professional commitments. Among her most recent accomplishments was the publication, in the autumn of 2023, of her children’s book Issittumi aputip naasunngua, through which she spreads a positive message of self-affirmation. In 2024, it was translated into Icelandic (Litla Snæblómið á norðurslóðum), Danish (Den lille sneblomst i Arktis), and French (Petite fleur des neiges du Grand Nord) . The French edition was met with great success at the Paris Book Fair in 2024, where Katti Frederiksen represented the Greenlandic Writers’ Association alongside its president, Juaaka Lyberth.