Under sjöarna
Under sjöarna an exploration of the lower strata of reality, an attempt to write one’s way forward, and downward, toward a state of attunement with the world as it is. A way of living one’s way into simplicity.
In this work, Ingela Strandberg is guided by her inner dog. Listen to the lakes, she says. Follow the body, as far inward as possible.
Landscape becomes memory, memory becomes body, and the poem itself acts as a submerged archive. Critics have noted the book’s hypnotic restraint and its ability to hold existential gravity without rhetorical weight. It is a work of stillness, depth and elemental force — poetry written as if nothing needed to be proven.
Pressvoices
“Strandberg’s poetry is the most beautiful I have read in a long time.”
Sydsvenskan
“Ingela Strandberg’s authorship has only grown more compelling with time, and here she surpasses herself.”
Svenska Dagbladet
“Ingela Strandberg has outdone herself…Here Ingela Strandberg goes even further in her strangely consoling meditations on death, gazing with greater boldness than ever toward the outer edges of existence.”
Aftonbladet
“Under sjöarna is at once simple, suggestive, and powerful.”
Göteborgs-Posten
“To read Ingela Strandberg’s poetry is, for a moment, to tune the world to an entirely different frequency.”
KULT Magazine
“Most impressive of all is how Strandberg manages to balance such plainspoken language with a gaze fixed directly on first principles. She reminds us that it is possible to speak — or at least to make poems — about life, death, and love without falling back on worn-out phrases.”
Dagens Nyheter
Ingela Strandberg (born 1944) is one of the most significant contemporary Nordic poets, whose major recognition arrived late in life. After decades of writing with quiet intensity, her work has in recent years been recognised as a late-period mastery of rare depth and authority. Rooted in the rural landscapes of southern Sweden, Strandberg’s poetry moves…
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world English: Granta, :Under sjöarna an exploration of the lower strata of reality, an attempt to write one’s way forward, and downward, toward a state of attunement with the world as it is. A way of living one’s way into simplicity.
In this work, Ingela Strandberg is guided by her inner dog. Listen to the lakes, she says. Follow the body, as far inward as possible.
Landscape becomes memory, memory becomes body, and the poem itself acts as a submerged archive. Critics have noted the book’s hypnotic restraint and its ability to hold existential gravity without rhetorical weight. It is a work of stillness, depth and elemental force — poetry written as if nothing needed to be proven.
Pressvoices
“Strandberg’s poetry is the most beautiful I have read in a long time.”
Sydsvenskan
“Ingela Strandberg’s authorship has only grown more compelling with time, and here she surpasses herself.”
Svenska Dagbladet
“Ingela Strandberg has outdone herself…Here Ingela Strandberg goes even further in her strangely consoling meditations on death, gazing with greater boldness than ever toward the outer edges of existence.”
Aftonbladet
“Under sjöarna is at once simple, suggestive, and powerful.”
Göteborgs-Posten
“To read Ingela Strandberg’s poetry is, for a moment, to tune the world to an entirely different frequency.”
KULT Magazine
“Most impressive of all is how Strandberg manages to balance such plainspoken language with a gaze fixed directly on first principles. She reminds us that it is possible to speak — or at least to make poems — about life, death, and love without falling back on worn-out phrases.”
Dagens Nyheter
