NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

An independent small press poetry review

NHI independent review
STEVE DEARDEN, KATH McKAY, RALF ANDTBACKA, CARITA NYSTRÖM, ADAM STRICKSON & MARKO HAUTALA: INTERLAND
Smith/Doorstop Books
Bank Street Arts
32-40 Bank Street
Sheffield
S1 2DS
UK
ISBN 1 902382 81 1
£14.95 [€21.95]
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This page last updated: 28th June 2008. 		INTERLAND

This beautifully produced book is the result of a collaboration between three writers from Yorkshire, England and three from Ostrobothnia, Finland. All the writings are presented in English and either Finnish or Swedish, translations all being done by the Finnish writers.

The theme of the publication is water and the writers explore various aspects of this theme using Beowulf's arrival in Finland as a starting point and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala as inspiration. The result is a rich tapestry of writing covering the various meanings water holds and the relationships people have with water. The poetry and short stories cover topics as varied as sea creatures, drowning, the womb (Carita Nyström's poems about her unborn twin brother) climate change (eg ONCE by Nyström) and of course weather, as here in Ralf Antbacka's YORKSHIRE IS COVERED WITH WATER:

	When moving through falling snow
	in a wet wrapping
	sludge of snow
The writers all bring their own cultural background and understanding to the pieces. Marko Hautala's work in particular to me is very evocative of the far north, this extract comes from LOUHI: MISTRESS OF THE NORTH:
	If you find a three-inch crack in the ice and follow
	it up north, walk through the whorls of snow like
	curtains to other worlds, you'll find an old woman
	with wings. Shivering with words.
Adam Strikson's poetry and short short stories build up into a moving narrative, with a sense of the continuing folk tradition of storytelling and with dolphins being an important motif:
	His brother said we watch them through
	curaçao blue, filmed in pools.

	They dive through glass, land on bathmats.

	They nuzzle children soon to die,
	lullaby them before sleep.
Interspersed with the creative parts of the project are thoughts from each of the writers on the process of working together and translating. Carita Nyström, in her introduction to Kath MacKay's work, describes translating as:
a bit like swimming side by side in a vast ocean of words. I'm reminded of the delicious change between hot and ice-cold in the Turkish Baths in Harrogate. An experience of awakening.
Which is a fair description of the sensation of reading these writings, all so varied and yet all linked by the theme of water.

reviewer: Juliet Wilson.