THU—May 13—2 PM ET

On May 13, see a virtual poetry reading and discussion with Nordic poets and translators Helena Boberg, Johannes Göransson, Katrine Øgaard Jensen, and Ursula Andkjær Olsen, moderated by Paul Cunningham (The House of the Tree of Sores). Helena Boberg and Johannes Göransson will present readings of works from Boberg’s new book Sense Violence, now out in English translation by Göransson from Black Ocean, and Ursula Andkjær Olsen and Katrine Øgaard Jensen will present readings from Olsen’s new book Outgoing Vessel, now out in English translation by Jensen from Action Books. Following the readings, they will discuss new topics in Nordic poetry and translation.

This event will take place as a Zoom webinar; please ask questions in the chat or send them in advance to  info@amscan.org. Registration is required; please sign up at the link above.

Praise for Sense Violence:
“With a hyperconfident sense of language, [Sense Violence] opens up a space that is similar to yet not similar to any other. It is permeated by a feminist awareness of lifelong, male violence”— Amelie Björck, Göteborgs-Posten

Praise for Outgoing Vessel:
“Danish poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen’s compelling work [Outgoing Vessel] travels through dark chambers of desire, power, and creation, conjuring up a feminist space where culture and nature wage war with one another, where psychology and anatomy merge to create a uniquely modern mytho-poetics. Katrine Øgaard Jensen’s masterful translation has a strong rhythm all its own, and captures the book’s jarring quality in a remarkably smooth rendering” — 2018 National Translation Award Judges Sawako Nakayasu, Kareen James Abu-Zeid, & Jennifer Feeley

About the Panelists

Helena Boberg (b. 1974) lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Her books include Repuls (Repulsion, 2011), Sinnesvåld (Sense Violence, 2013) and Konsten at med hvissa metodiska rörelser hemkalla en hädangången til lifvet (The art of recalling a deceased person to lif with certayne methodical movements, 2020). She is a translator of poetry. A sometime member of the Surrealist Group of Stockholm, Boberg draws on psychoanalytic, surreal, and feminist discourses in her poetry. She also participates in the feminist-literary project Shaerat, which over the past ten years have involved writers from Sweden, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Algeria among others, in workshops to facilitate translating and networking among female poets. Sense Violence was published by Black Ocean, U.S.A., in 2020. Sense Violence is among the nominées for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards. Repuls (Repulsion, 2011), was translated by Ibrahim Abdulmalik and published in Egypt as the first within a year-published Swedish collection of poetry ever (Merit Publishing House, 2012). Boberg has been translated and published internationally in several printed and online literary journals; in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Iraq, Iran, Rumania, Saudi-Arabia, Ukraine, U.S.A. Her latest book is nominated for Swedish Radio’s poetry prize 2021.

Johannes Göransson is the author of eight books of poetry and criticism, most recently POETRY AGAINST ALL (2020), and the translator of several books of poetry, including works by Aase Berg, Ann Jäderlund, Helena Boberg and Kim Yideum. His translation of Eva Kristina Olsson’s The Angelgreen Sacrament is forthcoming from Black Square Editions. His poems, translations and critical writings have appeared in a wide array of journals in the US and abroad, including Fence, Lana Turner, Spoon River Review, Modern Poetry in Translation (UK), Kritiker (Denmark) and Lyrikvännen (Sweden). He is an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Notre Dame and, together with Joyelle McSweeney, edits Action Books.

Katrine Øgaard Jensen is a writer and translator from the Danish. She is a recipient of several fellowships and awards, including the Danish Arts Foundation’s ‘Young Artistic Elite’ Fellowship in 2020 as well as the 2018 National Translation Award in Poetry for her translation of Ursula Andkjær Olsen’s book-length poem, Third-Millennium Heart (Broken Dimanche Press/Action Books 2017). She teaches creative writing and literary translation at Columbia University, where she served as Acting Director of LTAC (Literary Translation at Columbia) from 2019-2020.

Ursula Andkjær Olsen made her literary debut in 2000 and has since published nine collections of poetry and one novel, in addition to several dramatic texts and libretti for operas such as Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s Sol går op, sol går ned, and composer Peter Bruun’s Miki Alone, which was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2008. Olsen has received numerous awards for her work, including the Danish Arts Foundation’s Award of Distinction in 2017, the 2012 Montanaprisen award for Det 3. årtusindes hjerte (Third-Millennium Heart, Broken Dimanche Press/Action Books 2017), and the 2015 Danish Critics Prize for Literature for Udgående fartøj (Outgoing Vessel, Action Books 2021). Her latest poetry collection, Mit Smykkeskrin (My Jewel Box) is currently a finalist for the 2021 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Since 2019, Olsen has served as head of The Danish Academy of Creative Writing. 

About the Moderator

Paul Cunningham is the author of the The House of the Tree of Sores (Schism2 Press, 2020) and his latest chapbook is The Inmost (Carrion Bloom Books, 2020). He is the translator of Helena Österlund’s Words (OOMPH! Press, 2019) and two chapbooks by Sara Tuss Efrik: Automanias Selected Poems (Goodmorning Menagerie, 2016) and The Night’s Belly (Toad Press, 2016). 

He is a managing editor of Action Books, co-editor of Radioactive Cloud, and co-curator of the Yumfactory Reading Series, and a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia.

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