WAITRESS IN FALL
Kristín ÓMARSDÓTTIR;
translated by Vala THORODDS
These poems are excerpted from a forthcoming selection of Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s poetry, Waitress in Fall —translated by Vala Thorodds and published by Carcanet on July 26th.
For over three decades, the work of Kristín Ómarsdóttir has thrived in the vanguard of Icelandic literature. Waitress in Fall offers anglophone readers the first substantial selection of her poems in translation. Spanning thirty years and seven collections—from her first to her latest—this wide-reaching introduction celebrates a vital voice in contemporary European poetry. Kristín’s work resists the sweet, the neat or the certain. Her poems delight in the lush mess of actual life, in its hands and fingers, lemons and clocks, socks, soldiers, snow, knives, mothers, nightstands, sweat, and crockery. The domestic is at the heart of the poems, but it is a domesticity tinged with threat: something ‘clear and ominous’ persists between the lines.
These are surreal, unsettling landscapes, in which children lap milk from trees and car tyres are ‘soft as skin’. But Kristín’s poems are also full of laughter, sex, and love. They accept vulnerability as a condition of intimacy. Erupting ‘wherever thirst is ignited’, they are not afraid to strike, to rage, recognising a right—a responsibility—to risk the necessary word, even to ‘wound the language.’
For over three decades, the work of Kristín Ómarsdóttir has thrived in the vanguard of Icelandic literature. Waitress in Fall offers anglophone readers the first substantial selection of her poems in translation. Spanning thirty years and seven collections—from her first to her latest—this wide-reaching introduction celebrates a vital voice in contemporary European poetry. Kristín’s work resists the sweet, the neat or the certain. Her poems delight in the lush mess of actual life, in its hands and fingers, lemons and clocks, socks, soldiers, snow, knives, mothers, nightstands, sweat, and crockery. The domestic is at the heart of the poems, but it is a domesticity tinged with threat: something ‘clear and ominous’ persists between the lines.
These are surreal, unsettling landscapes, in which children lap milk from trees and car tyres are ‘soft as skin’. But Kristín’s poems are also full of laughter, sex, and love. They accept vulnerability as a condition of intimacy. Erupting ‘wherever thirst is ignited’, they are not afraid to strike, to rage, recognising a right—a responsibility—to risk the necessary word, even to ‘wound the language.’
Kristín ÓMARSDÓTTIR is the author of seven collections of poetry, five books of short stories, seven novels, and half a dozen plays. Her novels have been translated into many languages including Swedish, French, and English. Her awards include the DV Cultural Award for Literature, the Icelandic Women’s Literature Prize, and the Icelandic national prize for playwright of the year. She has been nominated for the Icelandic Literary Award four times, as well as the Nordic Council Literary Prize.
Vala THORODDS is an Iceland-born poet and publisher. She is founding director of the independent literary press Partus, managing editor of Sine Wave Peak, and co-editor of the poetry journal Pain.
Vala THORODDS is an Iceland-born poet and publisher. She is founding director of the independent literary press Partus, managing editor of Sine Wave Peak, and co-editor of the poetry journal Pain.