AshehougAgency

Waking Up as a Part of Nature

Grief for loved ones who have passed away, and how and to what extent one should deal with this grief, is the subject of this collection of prose poems. The beautiful, naked and distinct poems are based on the experiences of a young person who loses his grandparents. Mental landscapes are beautifully mixed with nature: "This memory shall lose all its leaves and turn to dust."

Praise for Waking Up as a Part of Nature:

"Impressing. The literary debutant Tommy Skoglund demonstrates his strength with a collection of prose poems which begins where life ends. (...) Several times, the collection hits the bull's eye scorchingly with its dark humour. (...) These are texts which ought to be read more than once. At first sight they may appear short and aloof. However, when one reads them again, one's admiration for the writer's special talent deepens"
(VG)

"Here are extraordinarily many beautiful and precise formulations. In the finest poems, numbness is expressed in a perceptible way. (...) These are skillful texts kept in a reflective style"
(Aftenposten)

"Writing distinct short prose or poems circling around the death of grandparents or one's own death, can be a demanding exercise. The literary debutant Tommy Skoglund, however, is a particular and disciplined writer, writing coolly and controlled without resorting to big gestures and emotions."
(Bergens Tidende)

"Tommy Skoglund writes thoughtfully, intimately and sincerely about death and disappearance (...) Skoglund approaches death both logically and philosophically. The logical and mathematical shows itself in the composition: six parts, each consisting of eight poems, in Roman numeral and with a square, rectangular layout, leading one's thoughts to coffins and sarcophagi. It is clean, organized and clear, clinically controlled within given frames. It is a way of handling death, keeping it at arm's length."
(Dag og Tid)

" Waking Up as a Part of Nature is not a literary debut that forces its way forward. All the more reason to pay attention to it"
(Hamar Arbeiderblad)

First published: 2009, Aschehoug Fiction
Tommy Skoglund: Biography and bibliography