Carsten Rene Nielsen

Miniatures is a collection of short poems by Carsten Rene Nielsen accompanied by illustrations from Mette Norrie that meet at the crossroads of the seen and unseen, blending whimsy and absurdity into a sequence of brief, wonder-driven experiences. Drawing from the 20th century European legacies of Max Jacob, Jean Arp, and Benjamin Peret, and the later American poetry of Charles Simic and Mark Strand, Nielsen invites readers into strange yet strangely familiar spaces-where trees grow from cracked plates, readers use hand mirrors instead of magnifying glasses, and snow has been assigned its own ministry. Mastering spare yet highly controlled language, Keplinger's translation preserves the lyricism of the original, allowing each poem to stand alone while collectively creating a fragmented, surreal vision of reality. Each miniature is a poetic fragment, often only a few lines long, but rich in metaphor and suggestion. Some pieces read like parables infused with satire and humor, while others resemble dreams. Mette Norrie's illustrations naturally extend the book's visual and perceptual scope, enlarging the reader's grasp of what is real, where it encounters what is imaginable.

Ny fortællende malebog Brug skattekortet i bogen og find de spændende steder fra byens historie, arkitektur, kunst og kultur. Læs inspirerende beskrivelser af kendte aarhusianere og kunstnere – oplev skattene i byen og fordyb dig i dem i din farvelægning af tegningerne. Opnå en ekstra dimension af mindfulness.

Paris Review has published a dozen poems from this collection. Carsten's surreal prose poetry style is very contemporary and fitting for American poetry readers. David Keplinger's is Carsten's primary English translator. Carsten's U. S. debut collection, The World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors (2007) received strong critical acclaim in the U. S.

Born in 1966, Nielsen works as a full time writer in Aarhus, the second largest Danish city, an academic and cultural center located on the peninsula of Jutland. Aarhus is also the home of the Grauballe Man, a bog man 2000 years old and displayed year round at Moesgaard Museum in a wooded area south of the city. This man, his cut open throat, his fractured shin, his beard stubble, his skin--even his fingerprints--preserved by the tannins of the bog, though flattened by its tremendous weight, lies displayed under glass, a ghastly testament to our common tribal past. I find in Nielsen's poems a similar spectacle--the little glass box of form, and, within, something old, nasty, fascinating, human.