Jóanes Nielsen (born April 5, 1953 in Tórshavn) is a Faroese author and poet of the 1980s generation.
Nielsen has written short stories, plays and novels. He has published seven collections of poetry, and was nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize for the fourth time with his latest collection of poems, entitled Brúgvar av svongum orðum (Bridges of Hungry Words). One of his main influences is the writer William Heinesen, who features in some of his poems.
As a writer Nielsen is mainly associated with a political and often existential message. He has been nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize five times: 1988, 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2012.
In December 2012 the international publication house Random House made a contract with Nielsen to publish his novel Brahmadellarnir, which was first to be published in German. The Random House contract was regarded as an historic event for Faroese literature, because no other Faroese author's work had until then been published by such a large publishing house.