Illustration by Anne Le Guern

This landscape snares us       with its dry stalks       A brittle soil fractures in July
We have chosen to scrape our fingers against earth’s crust       get bacteria under our nails
Here we hold fast       Bodies grow give way to new bodies
a system wrought over millions of years       Don’t take it personally
that it’s crackling       that it’s working       It is evolution speaking
A voice that proposes monstrosities

Kristin Berget
Kristin Berget made her debut in 2007 with the collection of poems loosing louise. She has since published five poetry collections as well as the novel Sonja Sacre Coeur. She has been nominated for many literary awards, including the Brage Prize in 2017 for the collection and when the light comes it will be fantastic. She also received the Tanum’s Women’s Scholarship in 2012 and the Stig Sæterbakken Memorial Prize in 2014. Berget’s poetry has been translated into several languages. and when the light comes it will be fantastic is her first collection translated into English.

Kathleen Maris Paltrineri
Kathleen Maris Paltrineri is a poet and translator from Iowa. She is the recipient of a 2021–2022 Fulbright Fellowship to edit and translate an anthology of contemporary ecopoetry from Norway. Her translation of Kristin Berget’s poetry has been supported by a University of Iowa Stanley International Research Fellowship and has been published in Brink and Poetry in Action, the Action Books blog. Paltrineri’s poetry has recently appeared in Bennington Review, CALYX, and jubilat. She will be a 2022 participant in the Arctic Circle Residency.