Ingrid Storholmen – A Poem

Ingrid Storholmen LEP&W V1 Dec 2022

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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume One December 2022.

A Poem by Ingrid Storholmen.


A Poem

These spruces have seen me before. Used to play here when I was small.
Taiga – the longest word I know. Taiga – the green river from here to Siberia
If we follow an animal track, we will get there

Disse grantrærne har sett meg før. Lekte her da jeg var liten.
Taiga – det lengste ordet jeg kan. Taiga – den grønne elva herfra til Sibir.
Følger vi et dyretråkk kommer vi nok fram.

The tight trees of the taiga
stand like tall soldiers
marching in Ukraine
and out

De tette trærne fra taigaen
står som tause soldater
marsjerende inn i Ukraina
og ut


© Ingrid Storholmen

Ingrid Storholmen made her debut in 2001 with the poetry collection Krypskyttarloven and received a lot of attention both for this and for her second collection Skamtalen. Graceland (2005). Her next collections of poems are Siriboka (2007) and Til kjälliens pris ( 2011), from which Storholmen has read at a large number of international literature festivals.

Storholmen’s first prose book Chernobyl Stories (2009) received a brilliant reception. She was nominated for the Brage Prize, the Critics’ Prize and the important IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2015.The book has been translated into English, Hindi, French and Estonian, among others.The novel was dramatized for the theater in 2015.

Mora who forgot it was evening (2012) was her first children’s book. Here lay Tirpitz (2014) is the author’s second novel. The German battleship Tirpitz lay for a long time in Fættenfjorden, not far from where Storholmen grew up. Every time the family passed the place, the adults said: “Here lay Tirpitz.” This memory became the starting point for the critically acclaimed book, which was nominated for the P2 listeners’ novel prize.

Støvberar (2020) is Storholmen’s newest novel.

For her overall writing, Ingrid Storholmen has been awarded the Hunger Prize 2010, the Booksellers’ Writers’ Scholarship 2010, the Ole Vig Prize 2010, Tanum’s Women’s Scholarship 2011 and Verdal Municipality’s Culture Prize 2018. She has a ten year scholarship from the State of Norway.

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