New Swedish Books. Spring 2016 1
NEW SWEDISH BOOKS Deep Love Nobody “When writing
poetry I have the feeling that the world expands”, says the poet Ann Jäderlund. Reading her new collection of poems, the eleventh since her debut in 1985, is like entering a brand new space. The words and the tone have become sharpened and the reader listens. The poems are fine and precise, the poet plays with italics, spacing or simple repetitions. It all contributes to a sense of focus, with intensity and a great seriousness. It deals with illness, death, loneliness, and pain, and a desire and despair that are also found in the title. At the same time, some of the poems are as gentle and playful as nursery rhymes, with both versatile and funny associations. In the wonderful section ‘Sight’, the colour white is presented in all forms possible. Perhaps Ann Jäderlund is actually painting. Or playing music. In any case, a new poetry collection from one of Sweden’s most important poets is always an event. “Perhaps Ann Jäderlund is actually painting. Or playing music.” and we continued doing something moving ELIS BURRAU AND WE CONTINUED DOING SOMETHING MOVING CLP WORKS RIGHTS: CLP WORKS The starting point for Elis Burrau’s poetry debut is the collective. Not in the sense of a strong and immovable unit, but more like a continuous process and, as he writes, a “wonderful negotiation”. It’s a bit like Wikipedia, from which he also quotes. The poet moves slowly through a contemporary moment filled with quotes and expressions, which make the loans and ready-mades that the poems consist of wholly appropriate; it’s pre-existing text, pre-existing statements. Perhaps this is the first time ever that the word “hypoglycaemia” has been used in a poetry collection? It’s possible to read Burrau as a contemporary avantgarde poet who with his friends have reinhabited the classics. However, his poems aren’t lofty or subversive but rather are finely tuned in their ordinariness and unobtrusiveness, and sometimes they are very funny. Burrau is a poet who’s interested in failure. At his best he really succeeds in “setting meaninglessness alight”. ANN JÄDERLUND DEEP LOVE NOBODY ALBERT BONNIERS FÖRLAG RIGHTS: ALBERT BONNIERS FÖRLAG 8