Miniatures

Miniatures is a collection of short poems by Carsten René Nielsen accompanied by illustrations from Mette Norrie that meet at the crossroads of the seen and unseen, blending whimsy and absurdity into a sequence of brief, wonder-driven experiences. Drawing from the 20th century European legacies of Max Jacob, Jean Arp, and Benjamin Péret, and the later American poetry of Charles Simic and Mark Strand, Nielsen invites readers into strange yet strangely familiar spaces--where trees grow from cracked plates, readers use hand mirrors instead of magnifying glasses, and snow has been assigned its own ministry. Mastering spare yet highly controlled language, Keplinger’s translation preserves the lyricism of the original, allowing each poem to stand alone while collectively creating a fragmented, surreal vision of reality. Each miniature is a poetic fragment, often only a few lines long, but rich in metaphor and suggestion. Some pieces read like parables infused with satire and humor, while others resemble dreams. Mette Norrie’s illustrations naturally extend the book’s visual and perceptual scope, enlarging the reader’s grasp of what is real, where it encounters what is imaginable.

Danish poet Carsten René Nielsen is the author of several poetry collections, including two books of children’s poetry. His works published in English include the prose poems The World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors (New Issues, 2007), House Inspections (BOA Editions, 2011), and Forty-One Objects (Bitter Oleander Press, 2019), all translated by the American poet David Keplinger. He received the prestigious Michael Stunge Poetry Prize and The Danish Ministry of Culture’s Children’s Book Award. His poetry has also has also been published in other countries such as Germany, India, the Netherlands, Italy and Canada. Nielsen lives on the island of Samsø in Denmark.

American poet and literary translator David Keplinger is the author of eight books of poetry, including Ice (Milkweed Editions, 2023), The World to Come (Conduit Books, 2021), and Another City (Milkweed Editions, 2018), which won the 2019 Rilke Prize. He is the translator of several books of poetry from Danish and German. His translation of Carsten René Nielsen’s collection of poems, Forty-One Objects was a finalist for the 2020 National Translation Award. He is the recipient of the 2025 Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.

Danish artist and author Mette Norrie has an MFA from the renowned Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Her work includes numerous illustrations for both Nordic and international publications, as well as collections of visual poetry, prose, and graphic novels written in Danish and English.