Jens Pauli Heinesen

Jens Pauli Heinesen (2 November 1932 in Sandavágur − 19 July 2011 in Tórshavn) was a Faroese writer. He received the Faroese Literature Prize four times and the Faroese Cultural Prize once. From 1968 to 1975, Heinesen was president of the Association of Writers of the Faroe Islands (Rithøvundafelag Føroya). He wrote novels, short stories, poems, plays, a children's book, and translated books from foreign languages into Faroese.

Biography Jens Pauli Heinesen's parents were Petur Heinesen á Lofti, a farmer from Sandavágur, and Anna Maria Malena Heinesen (born Johannesen) from the small island of Hestur. He grew up in the village of Sandavágur. At 14 years old, he moved to Tórshavn, where he worked briefly at an office and published his first book, Degningsælið, before finishing high school in 1954. After graduating, he moved to Denmark, where he studied at Emdrupborg Statsseminarium and became a school teacher in 1956.

In August 1956, he married Maud Brimheim from Klaksvík. They had a daughter, Elin Brimheim Heinesen, in 1958, and later adopted a second daughter, Marianna, from Korea. The family moved back to the Faroe Islands in 1957. Maud Heinesen (born Brimheim) later became a writer of children's books.