Damascus, Atlantis by Marie Silkeberg and translated by Kelsi Vanada

This is poetry from Sweden.

Damascus, Atlantis by Marie Silkeberg translated by Kelsi Vanada is published by Terra Nova Press. This is a Book originally written in Swedish. This was published in 2021.0 and has the ISBN of 9.78194959711E12.

Damascus, Atlantis, by Marie Silkeberg, is a Swedish poetry collection from Sweden, translated by Kelsi Vanada, published by Terra Nova Press in 2021. It is a Swedish collection whose paired cities evoke ruin, myth, war, disappearance, and submerged memory. Silkeberg’s poems feel drawn to places that are both real and legendary, where the names of cities become vessels for mourning what history keeps flooding. I would not approach it as a book that needs to be solved before it can be felt. Start with the pressure of the title, the texture of the translated line, and the feeling of a voice making room for itself in English. For this library, the book matters as more than a record of Sweden; it is an invitation to let poetry remain particular, difficult, and alive without asking it to behave like explanation.

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.