Edith Södergran - Modern Woman
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Bilingual Edition
160 pages
March 11, 2026
ISBN 978-1-954218-43-7
Distributed by
Asterism Books (US)
Turnaround Publisher Services (UK & EU)
Edith Södergran
Modern Woman
Translated from Swedish by
CD ESKILSON
The trailblazing debut collection of Edith Södergran, a modernist visionary and one of the most influential poets to write in Swedish.
Södergran’s daring, avant-garde work outraged many of her Finland-Swedish contemporaries who clung to traditional literary sensibilities. Through dynamic symbolism and fluid logic, the poems comprising her first collection fundamentally questioned early twentieth-century notions of what poetry is and what it can do. “Something like this has never been heard before,” noted critic and fellow Finland-Swedish poet Hagar Olsson about her work. During her short life, Södergran enacted the poet’s ultimate task of imagining previously unexplored possibilities for language, ushering literary modernism into Swedish-language writing and inspiring generations of writers since.
“Like Ungaretti’s Il porto sepolto, published the same year, Södergran’s Dikter announced a radically new ‘outsider’ lyric—formally groundbreaking, unflinchingly subjective, and destined to alter the course of European poetry. With Modern Woman, poet and translator CD Eskilson brings that audacious debut into exquisitely tuned English, and their translator’s introduction offers an insightful guide to her multilingual, avant-garde influences and the enduring force of her poetic ‘leap to freedom.’” —Geoffrey Brock
“Modern Woman is ‘a toast to women’s glory,’ a young poet’s bold struggle to find a new language of self, gender, love, and home. These elegiac and ecstatic poems push the boundaries of societal and poetic convention, making way for a world where spring is a ‘cracked flute,’ bliss is ‘wicked’ and ‘pain gives us all we need.’ This defiant debut collection is Edith Södergran’s message to the future, finally reaching us over a century later thanks to these deft, fresh-eyed translations by CD Eskilson. —Patty Crane
“I love these poems and this book. The pairing of Eskilson with Södergran shows how much great poetic collaborations can achieve, across languages, cultures, and time. Eskilson’s care, attention, and respect for Södergran’s unique vision and style will bring so much joy and fascination to so many readers.” —Jennifer Croft
“It’s like falling in love; it defies description through mere words. It surpasses linguistic expression and embodies something greater. It’s pure magic.” —Josef Ka
EDITH SÖDERGRAN (1892–1923) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet living in the Russian Empire who is widely credited with introducing modernism to Swedish-language poetry. Born in St. Petersburg and educated in German, Södergran held a unique polyglot status that allowed her to be influenced by a variety of early modernist literature, setting her on a path toward creating her own brand of challenging poetry. Though her writing was largely ridiculed by more conservative critics, she released four collections during her lifetime. She died of chronic tuberculosis at the age of 31 receiving little positive recognition. However, her impact on Swedish-language poetry has become monumental, and today she is remembered as one of the most influential modern poets in Nordic literature.
CD ESKILSON is the author of Scream / Queen (Acre Books). Their work appears in Kenyon Review, The Offing, Pleiades, Georgia Review, Ninth Letter, and others. They are a recipient of the C.D. Wright / Academy of American Poets Prize and have been nominated for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Pushcart Prize. CD earned their MFA from the University of Arkansas where they were awarded the Walton Family Fellowship in Poetry, the James T. Whitehead Award in Poetry, and the Lily Peter Fellowship in Translation.
