Astrid Alben

/United Kingdom
Astrid Alben

Astrid Alben read English Literature and Philosophy at Edinburgh University. Her poetry collection Ai! Ai! Pianissimo is published by Arc Publications. Alben has been described as “a new and original voice in English poetry, serious and uncompromising.” Her poetry, essays, English translations of Dutch contemporary poetry and reviews are widely published, including in the Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Review, Drunken Boat, Stand and Poetry Ireland, Poetry Salzburg, Poem, and her poems have been translated into Romanian and Chinese. Alben is known for her strong performance on stage and has read at among others the Writers’ Union of Romania’s International Poetry Festival, Cheltenham Poetry Festival, the Troubadour, PEN London and the Aldeburgh Festival. She is currently working on her second collection. As co-founder of the art and science initiative Pars, Alben is the editor of two art and science anthologies, Findings on Ice (2007) and Findings on Elasticity (2010), and curates site-specific events that are a mixture of theatre, scientific experiment and performance. Alben is a Royal Society of Arts Fellow and a Wellcome Trust Fellow 2014.

Poems


/ A Message on her Machine


/ Last of the Snow


/ One Moon-shaped Cake


/ Poem for Breakfast


/ Skimming Stones


/ Thank you, and please remain seated until the fasten your seatbelt sign has been switched off


/ The Kailashpati Tree


/ The Other Country


/ The Post Box


/ The Saddest Tree at Kew


/ The Tent


/ We dug the tunnel; B hid the soil