Astoria

by Malena Mörling

Astoria examines the transitory physical world of the body and reflects on the seamless quality of the present moment. Surrounded by the rush and noise of trains, highways, and grocery store checkout lines, the narrator of these poems creates an intimate space in which to ponder the ephemeral nature of everyday things and the deeper meanings that might underlie them all. “It is amazing / we're not more amazed,” one poem muses, “The world / is here / and then it is gone.” The poems in Astoria unravel the hidden within the obvious, and speak to our innate questions of longing, purpose, and existence.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published February 12, 2006

About the author

Malena Mörling, born 1965, is a Swedish-American poet and translator. She is the author of two books of poetry, Ocean Avenue, which won the New Issues Press Poetry Prize in 1998 and Astoria, published by Pittsburgh Press in 2006. She has translated works by the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, the Finland-Swedish poet Edith Södergran and numerous other Swedish poets as well as the American poet Philip Levine into Swedish. She was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2007 and a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship in 2010. She is a Research Associate at the School For Advanced Research on the Human Experience in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mörling has received exceptional praise for both "Ocean Avenue" and "Astoria" by editors and poets. Ed Ochester, for The Best American Poetry wrote: "MALENA MÖRLING's poems are low-key, minimalist, utterly unpretentious and yet--how does she do it?--they speak about the central conditions of our lives as few poems do." Gerald Stern wrote: "Malena Mörling's passion is for observing. She sees everything--victims, suicides, lost mothers, compulsive counters, blind women in buses--with a penetrating eye. She is deeply aware of the moment of 'passing through' and it informs her poetry. "Ocean Avenue" is subtle, lovely, and original."

Mörling was born in Stockholm, Sweden 1965. She was raised in southern Sweden. She is currently Professor in the Department of Creative Writing at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington[1] and Core Faculty in The Low Residency MFA program at New England College.[2]

Reviews

[Amy Kitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anyone want to buy this book? Hell I'd just give it to you...

[jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

morlings language and appreciation of the mundane makes for poetry i truly admire

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful collection of poetry

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend sent me a few poems by Malena Morling, and I raced to buy each of her published books. Here is a voice of perfect, quiet authority. The originality of her perceptions, the clear ring of her syntax and music, make for that simple but not easily arrived at conclusion: this one's the real thing.

[Hannah Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorites:

Matter: "...he is an icon in a white undershirt."

A Story: "...the empty shopping cart of the wind"

Wallpaper: "Momentarily in the woods, the thin carpet of snow is cut to fit perfectly around every tree."

[Simona · Rating 5 out of 5]

gorgeous. I take it on every trip and sleep with it under my pillow.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

kind of trite and repetitious. should have quit halfway in but it was so short i felt guilty quitting.

[Rhian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another genius book of poetry by the amazing Malena Morling.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poetry