On the reindeer's shaggy branches we were caught
Poetry Talk with Linnea Axelsson

Reading
Talk
Poesiefestival Berlin 2026
Atelierraum, silent green
← / →

© Daniel Pedersen

Linnea Axelsson (born in 1980 in Porjus (Bårjås) in the municipality of Jokkmokk, northern Sweden) is a Swedish-Sámi writer, poet, and art historian. She has written novels and poetry collections; her most recent publication is the collection Sjaunja (Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2024). Her most important literary work to date is considered to be the long poem Ædnan (Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2018).

It tells a multi-layered story spanning three generations over a period of nearly one hundred years, from the 1910s to the near present. At its center are several generations of two Sámi families whose fates are closely intertwined. The work was awarded the August Prize, Sweden’s most prestigious literary award. The English translation by Saskia Vogel (Aednan: An Epic, Alfred A. Knopf 2024), which brought Axelsson international recognition, was nominated in 2024 for the National Book Award for Translated Literature.

In Ædnan, Axelsson addresses themes of colonialism and assimilation, including state-imposed forced relocations and so-called nomad schools, where Sámi children were alienated from their language and culture. The story is illustrated through the fates of three central female figures, each representing a generation: the reindeer herder Ristin, Lise, who attended a nomad school and struggles with her identity as a Sámi woman, and her daughter Sandra, an activist for Sámi land rights. Remarkable in this multi-generational epic is its minimalist, often fragmentary language, through which the different characters present the story from their own perspectives. Axelsson employs a technique reminiscent of the yoik, the traditional Sámi form of song: improvised portraits of people and landscapes with recurring motifs and a layering of present and past. “I yoik in the church / ascending in agility / expanding in / agility”.

Linnea Axelsson reads from Ædnan and presents poems from her most recent collection Sjaunja, which have been specially translated for this event.

Moderation Saskia Vogel

The event will be interpreted Swedish-German.

Funded by: Swedish Arts Council