New Swedish Books, Spring 2018 1
New Swedish Books 42 Helene Rådberg (b. 1950) Pol
itics Publisher Ordfront www.ordfrontforlag.se Rights Ordfront lina@ordfrontforlag.se Selected Works Hämtar mitt landskap hem poems 2000 En sorts mamma kallad poems 2006 Det gula rummets små terapistycken poems 2008 Literary Prizes Stig Sjödin-priset 2013 Jan Fridegård-priset 2015 Politics Helene Rådberg’s first poetry collection in ten years is a linguistic artwork, sparkling with assonance and alliteration. Here, a sisterhood of junior nurses, nursery school teachers and other women whose underpaid work bears the weight of the welfare state talk their inflammatory talk. But we also find sisters who, in the depths of dark forests, hold in trust the legacy of Marilyn Monroe and Sylvia Plath: feminitities that are both a much too tightly-pinned dress and a private land of box pleats and deep red roses. From the book’s last pages, a girloracle speaks. She sees in the world a phosphoric rain, sunsets, drones, feet and burnt-off eyelids. Still, she detects a time approaching in which every tired body can rest, every skate is tied, every book is read, and every sad soul is given comfort. photo: Jan-Åke Eriksson