Vinci, Later

Danish poet Morten Søndergaard has been living abroad and spent some time in the little Italian town of Vinci. The poetry in this collection is the result of that experience. It dramatizes various aspects of (post)modern reality, dreams, family life, architecture, sculpture gathered together as a landscape through which the reader can wander, thoughtful, bemused, amused, but always as language's companion. Søndergaard's creativity is as forcefully life-embracing as his poetry is convincing and captivating. He is also typical of the younger Danish generation's approach to literature: anything goes, but seriously. Vinci, Later was shortlisted for the Nordic Council's Prize in 2003. Morten Søndergaard carefully brushes the lint off our shoulders, then crouches behind the controls of his poems and does everything to dislodge us from our feet. As doomful and slapstick as Beckett, he gives voice to the ground we stomp all over, and the stuff aside from people that peoples our world. What I'm saying is: This is an astonishing collection. -Stuart Ross