Posted on January 26, 2010 by Scott Esposito

This is a very cool audio performance of part of “It,” poem by the Danish poet Inger Christensen. The six performers here are reading 11 six-line stanzas.

In addition to writing poetry, Christensen also wrote a metafictional novel called Azorno, which we excerpted in Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed. And see below for more info on Christensen and Azorno.

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Scott Esposito

The Green Integer Blog has a nice review of Azorno by Inger Christensen (excerpted in our anthology), a very elaborate, playfully metafictional, but short novel. It starts with structure:

As in most of her writings, Inger Christensen’s 1967 fiction Azorno, is a highly structured work. In this case, seven characters—Randi, Katarina, Louise, Xenia, Bathsheba (Bet), Sampel and Azorno—each of the women pregnant, are in the process of writing fictions. Each of their narratives—although one who be hard placed to describe any of them as having a plot—contains similar actions, phrases, and events.

Later on, the reviewer observes:

Christensen asks as many have before her–but in a highly original manner–what is reality, who of us is real? Several of her figures often have the feeling that somewhere there is a person who exactly at the same moment makes the same notes to be woven into a novel about him or herself.

It is only in the final section of this lyrical work that we sense we may have broken through to a seeming “reality.”

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Scott Esposito

The Harvard Crimson, which hands it to most other papers in terms of covering literature-in-translation, offers a review of the intriguing novel Azorno by Inger Christensen, a perennial Nobel candidate until her death earlier this year:

Whether “Azorno” is a novelesque prose poem, or a poetic novel written in prose is up for debate—as is much of the nature of its contents. A hall of mirrors, the book was written by acclaimed Danish poet Inger Christensen, who died in early January of this year at 73. Denise Newman’s translation of “Azorno,” released in January, marked the first time since its publication in the late 1960s that the novel has been available in English, and while the book’s experimental nature makes its absence rather unsurprising, the arrival of its 105 pages is long overdue . . .

Azorno is one of this year’s interesting translated novels that we’ve chosen to excerpt in Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed. In addition to several other excerpted novels, we’ve also got about 20 stories, excerpts, and poems that are appearing in English for the first time—some from very established names like Mahmoud Darwish, and some from people we hope the English language will develop more of a relationship with in the future.

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Scott Esposito

The above quote comes from Danish writer Inger Christensen, and the game she considers tragic is literature.

When Christensen died earlier this year, the New York Times called her “Denmark’s most eminent poet” and a perennial Nobel contender. We’re excerpting Christensen’s novel Azorno in our forthcoming anthology, and in her translator’s introduction Denise Newman draws on Christensen’s quote, writing:

Her approach to form was in keeping with her conviction that literature is “a game, maybe even a tragic game—the game we play with a world that plays its own game with us.” In Azorno, she magnified the game of fiction, with her narrative strategy of a novel within a novel within a novel.

Azorno resembles a house of mirrors. Images and passages recur with slight variations. The setting shifts between Copenhagen, Zurich, and Paris; points of view also shift, leaving the reader to puzzle out which of the characters is speaking. There are five women and two men. One man is a writer named Sampel, the other is Azorno, the main character of his novel. All the women are pregnant by Sampel. Some know each other, and they meet and write letters that comprise their novel about five women and a man named Sampel, who sometimes calls himself Azorno, and who is also writing a novel that may include one or more of the women.

This must be one of my favorite excerpts in Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed, and I’m looking forward to reading the entire book. Azorno has been just published by New Directions, and those interested in learning more can read these two reviews.