As Long As Trees Take Root in the Earth by Alain Mabanckou and translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson

This is poetry from Congo.

As Long As Trees Take Root in the Earth by Alain Mabanckou translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson is published by Seagull Books. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2025.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781803095936E12.

As Long As Trees Take Root in the Earth, translated from the French by Nancy Naomi Carlson, brings Alain Mabanckou’s French-language work into English through Seagull Books. Published in 2025, it is best approached as a book of encounter rather than as a book to solve. Mabanckou’s title gives the book an ecological patience, but also the ache of attachment, exile, and cultural memory held in the image of rootedness. What I want from a translated poetry library is not only coverage, but temperament: the chance to meet a mind arranging the world differently. This volume does that work. It gives the reader enough ground to enter, then enough strangeness to keep the encounter from becoming merely informational.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.