Sara Omar

Sara Omar has been writing poems and painting from childhood. In 2012, she participated in WEYA, an international festival for 1,000 of the world's most talented young poets from 100 different countries.[5] Sara Omar tried to publish her literary works in the Middle East but was rejected. For many years she wrote under a pseudonym, pretending to be a man.

Since 2004, Sara Omar has written poetry and critical essays in the Middle Eastern media on female genital mutilation, incest, sexual assault, honor crimes, honor killings, social control, oppression of women, and the rights of homosexuals, the disabled, children and women in patriarchal societies.

Before her breakthrough novels were published, Sara Omar published a poem in the literary magazine Kritiker in 2014, entitled "The River of Pain That Continues Its Wandering".[6]

She also contributed the poem Barndommens tavshed (Childhood Silence) in the anthology Ord på flugt (Words on the run), published by Danish PEN. The anthology was written by authors and journalists who had all fled war-torn countries.[7]

On 30 November 2017, Sara Omar's debut novel Dødevaskeren was published, for which she received the Readers' Book Prize. The debut novel has sold over 100,000 copies, of which 50,000 were sold in the first month after publication.

Two years later, on 26 November 2019, the sequel Skyggedanseren was published, which was awarded the booksellers' literature prize, De Gyldne Laurbær. Within two months, it sold 50,000 copies.

Both of Sara Omar's novels are published by Politikens Forlag, and they have been translated into Swedish, Norwegian, Serbian, Macedonian and French.

In 2019, Sara Omar opened the Danish literary event Bogforum in Bellacenteret, Copenhagen,[8] and has given the opening speech at CPH:DOX in 2020.[9] Sara Omar has also participated and given readings at several literature festivals, including Bogforum, Litt Talk, Ordkraft, Litterature Exchange and international SILK in Skudeneshavn in Norway. She has performed for Politiken Live, Louisiana Live, at Huset Zornig and with Jan Grarup at the Royal Danish Theater.

In 2020, 'the dead washer' was published in France. Le Point soon claimed the book as one of the 30 most important publications in France in 2020.[10]

Sara Omar has participated in many events focusing on vulnerable people and victims of violence. She has given presentations on honor-related crimes, sexual liberation, and negative social control for the Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology, on her novel Dødevaskeren at the Anonymity of Violence event for the Umbrella Organization Intercultural Women's Council[11] and the Tingbjerg Women's Association Eves Univers, at the Danish United Nations Association on what Denmark must fight for on the UN Commission on Women, and at Mino Denmark for International Women's Day.

She has appeared in campaigns for Amnesty International and for Danner,[12] where she participated in the "Life after Violence" project on abused and vulnerable children and women.

She is an ambassador for DIGNITY - the Danish Institute against Torture,[13][14] the Danish Women's Society, the youth organization Crossing Borders[15] and the Swedish organization GAPF, which fights honor-related violence.

Shortly after the release of Dødevaskeren, Sara Omar was invited to give a New Year's speech in Deadline on DR2,[16] where she focused on the violent world in which some Muslim women live.

Sara Omar sits on the Expert Advisory Panel for the Arts & Globalization Communication Group.[17]

• Den konfliktfyldte unge i et samfund, der er ligeglad. The Voices. 2006.

• The poem Floden af smerte, der fortsætter sin vandring, from the Swedish anthology "Ett inskränkt öde och ett besinningslöst". KRITIKER. 2014. No. 33. ISBN 978-91-87605-10-9.
• The poem Barndommens tavshed from the anthology "Ord på flugt". Dansk PEN. 2016. ISBN 978-87-98981-29-9
• Dødevaskeren. Politikens Forlag. 2017. ISBN 978-87-400-2697-9
• Skyggedanseren. Politikens Forlag. 2019. ISBN 978-87-400-5231-2