The International Library

The International Library Presents Olga Ravn on The Wax Child with Audrey Wollen

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Wednesday, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:15 pm EDT April 15, 2026

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

Join us at The Center for Fiction for an evening with Olga Ravn, the acclaimed author of Booker Prize finalist The Employees and My Work, as she introduces her haunting new novel, The Wax Child, translated by Martin Aitken.

Set amid the witchcraft trials of seventeenth-century Denmark, The Wax Child follows Christenze Kruckow, an unmarried noblewoman accused of sorcery, and the women who share her fate. Their alleged crimes—stealing happiness, consorting with a headless Devil, and wielding un-Christian powers—place them in peril of the stake. Narrated by a wax doll crafted by Christenze herself, The Wax Child is a chilling meditation on fear, power, and the brutal mechanisms that govern communities.

Drawing from court records, spells, letters, and Scandinavian grimoires, Ravn blends meticulous research with genre-bending experimentation, building a collage-like narrative that is as unsettling as it is mesmerizing. She will be joined in conversation by artist and essayist Audrey Wollen for a conversation about The Wax Child, its source material, and the enduring allure of stories that illuminate the darkest corners of our past and present.

We offer two in-person ticket options: the $10 Standard Ticket and the $40+ Supporter Ticket. Both provide the same access, but if you’re able, we kindly suggest registering for the Supporter Ticket to help sustain our programs.

About The International Library

This event is part of The International Library, a collaboration between The Center for Fiction and the Center for the Art of Translation. Join us for a series of conversations across time, place, language, and culture, with live audiences in San Francisco and Brooklyn, with more locations to come. This series will guide readers to think critically about how stories are told and explore the inspiration, philosophy, and craft of international storytellers.

Featuring

Olga Ravn

Olga Ravn

Olga Ravn (born 1986) is a Danish novelist and poet. Her debut poetry collection Jeg æder mig selv som lyng: pigesind (I Devour Myself Like Heather) appeared to critical acclaim in 2012. Alongside Johanne Lykke Holm she ran the feminist performance group and writing school Hekseskolen from 2015 to 2019. In collaboration with Danish publisher Gyldendal she edited a selection of Tove Ditlevsen’s texts and books that relaunched Ditlevsen readership worldwide. Her novel The Employees was on the shortlist for the Booker Prize in 2021.

Photo Credit: Laerke Possett
Audrey Wollen

Audrey Wollen

Audrey Wollen is a writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, the Yale Review, Harper’s Magazine, Bookforum, the Nation, and others.

Featured Book

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The Wax Child

By Olga Ravn

Published by New Directions

Translated by Martin Aitken

PURCHASE

In seventeenth-century Denmark, Christenze Kruckow, an unmarried noblewoman, is accused of witchcraft. She and several other women are rumored to be possessed by the Devil, who has come to them in the form of a tall headless man who gives them dark powers: they can steal people’s happiness, they have performed unchristian acts, and they can cause pestilence or death. They are all in danger of the stake.

The Wax Child, narrated by a wax doll created by Christenze Kruckow, is an unsettling horror story about brutality and power, nature and witchcraft, set in the fragile communities of premodern Europe.

Deeply researched and steeped in visceral, atmospheric detail, The Wax Child is based on a series of real witchcraft trials that took place in Northern Jutland in the seventeenth century. Full of lush storytelling and alarmingly rich imagination, Olga Ravn also weaves in quotes from original sources such as letters, magical spells and manuals, court documents, and Scandinavian grimoires.

About Our Partners

Founded in 2000, the Center for the Art of Translation is a literary nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Our publications, events, and educational programming enrich the library of vital literary works, nurture and promote the work of translators, build audiences for literature in translation, and honor the incredible linguistic and cultural diversity of our schools and our world.

About this series

The International Library

The International Library is a series of conversations across time, place, language, and culture. Presented by The Center for Fiction and the Center for the Art of Translation with live audiences in Brooklyn and San Francisco.

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