Martina Moliis-Mellberg

- Finland -

Martina Moliis-Mellberg (b. 1984) is a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet and film critic, acclaimed for her sensuous, atmospheric, and stylistically distinctive poetry. Since her 2015 debut with the critically praised collection A, she has emerged as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary Nordic literature. Her subsequent works include 7 (2017), falk and pisces szn (both 2021). falk was nominated for the prestigious Runeberg Prize, affirming her as a major figure in Finland-Swedish poetry.

 

 


Tears are water too
 
In their poetry collection medusa (2024), Finnish-Swedish poet Martina Moliis-Mellberg writes about wanting “to be nothing and made of water”. Moliis-Mellberg immenses the reader in depths where the boundaries between human and non-human blur almost into insignificance. The primeval sea binds; it reveals something essential about humanity in its alien form. For Moliis-Mellberg, metamorphosis is central. Tears are water too.
 
Martina Moliis-Mellberg made their debut in the Nordic poetry scene in 2015 with the prose poetry collection A. It portrays three main characters: French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau longing to live as a tiger shark, Alfa Cassiopeia with her tattooed girlish body, and lonely Atlas, destined to support the firmament. A established the framework for Moliis-Mellberg’s world, where the diversity of living beings and their desires are central themes. Gods, lovers, birds and creatures that travel forever in the abyss all live simultaneously in their poetry.


From the outset, it was clear that Moliis-Mellberg approaches poetry thematically. The name of their second poetry collection, 7 (2017), refers to the seven seas of the world, and it consolidated Moliis-Mellberg’s status as a keen portrayer of the emotion of longing. Poems on insane amusement parks and underwater inventions subtly unpack both the essence of alienation and masculinity, as also the prospects of technological development. The constant need to separate oneself from the element of earth glimpses the question of what the natural state of being is.


The desire for what lies in the depths persists in the Runeberg Prize-nominated collection falk (2021), which twists underwater dreams towards other elements. falk transferred Moliis-Mellberg’s poetry into a strictly structured format, where all poems are the length of three stanzas. The book's praiseworthy minimalist layout, designed by graphic designer Emma Strömberg, resonates with controlled expression.


The Runeberg Prize 2021 jury praised the work for its ominous atmosphere and its sharp, pictorial and accurate description of a character, in the form of a falcon. There is a sense of survival as the remains of a being are washed up on the jagged rocks of the outcrops. The falcon is a messenger and a keen observer, but also a bird of prey. Critic Marit Lindqvist notes that Moliis-Mellberg writes candidly about vulnerability and grief. Metamorphosis pervades the collection, from lost coastal lines to hands unable to bear the weight of feathers. Sorrow grows like a life form of its own. Sorrow grows like a life form of its own. Poets’ connection with Tomas Tranströmer can be seen in their dreamy mindscape and in the sense of places as they write: // days of rain / unforeseen possibilities and fake wounds / only dark matter where the core is meant to be.
pisces szn (2021) demonstrated Martina Moliis-Mellberg's versatility as a poet. A Greek tragedy merges with contemporary heartaches as they portray the pisces szn poetic I with an almost unbearable sadness. Opening with a reference to Billie Eilish’s song Ocean Eyes, the narrator is drawn into a desperate love under the season of Pisces. The Pisces sign is said to represent a fish, perhaps a shark, into which Aphrodite and her son Eros transformed to escape the monster Typhon. This ties the nautical themes of the poet's past repertoire with astrological readings.
 
In pisces szn, Moliis-Mellberg writes unashamedly and frankly about merging and disappearing. Abbreviations and internet slang contrast with the controlled style of falk. The absence of punctuation emphasizes the connection to unfiltered rhythmic expression:  // i wanted to write something true / i wanted to do you justice / my love / it’s not possible // The poet captures the nature of desire and how the perceived relates to the real. Memories become tangled, rendering the original unrecognizable, to the point where the longing for lost love also becomes a longing for the mangos and the grocery store outside the lover’s house. The response to unrequited love is almost a physical phenomenon with tears, evoking the Ovidian idea of the transformative power of emotions.
 
The thirst for love permeates Martina Moliis-Mellberg’s literary work. Yet, in contemplating desire and its destructive force, Moliis-Mellberg extends beyond human existence. The poet’s interest in various ecologies challenges the poetic subject, linking Moliis-Mellberg to posthuman poetry. The thematic repertoire of ambivalences and reorganisation of life has similarities with another contemporary Finnish poet, Pauliina Haasjoki. Queerness can also be seen as a factor in this state of flux, absorbed in tidal changes where constantly fluid elements seek their place. This connects Moliis-Mellberg with the literary movement of hydrofeminism, together with e.g. Swedish Professor Emerita and poet Nina Lykke.
 
Both introspective and visual representation come naturally to Moliis-Mellberg, who has also worked as a film critic. They debuted in children's literature with the book I mitt lilla huvud (2023, together with illustrator Sanna Mander) receiving an honorable mention in the Punni competition of The Finnish Institute for Children’s Literature.
 
The playful expression continued in Moliis-Mellberg’s fifth poetry collection, medusa, where language-stretching poetry meets the arid vocabulary of science. In 2025, it was awarded a prize from the Paul Werner Lybeck Bequest Fund. In medusa, the poet presents the names of various Scyphozoa species, using their characteristics to explore the complexity of categorization. The rhythm of the poems mirrors the gentle movement of the shape-shifting medusas. Transparent, gelatinous creatures that are difficult to grasp represent both beauty and monstrosity. As Anna Möller-Sibelius wrote in her review: “Isn't that mimesis, the shaping of reality, at its most profound?”

 

 

Essay by Saara Tamminen

 

More about the poet

Poetry

  1. excerpt from pisces szn / Utdrag ur pisces szn

  2. excerpt from pisces szn / Utdrag ur pisces szn

  3. excerpt from pisces szn / Utdrag ur pisces szn

  4. excerpt from pisces szn / Utdrag ur pisces szn

  5. excerpt from pisces szn / Utdrag ur pisces szn

  6. excerpt from pisces szn / Utdrag ur pisces szn

  7. excerpt from pisces szn / Utdrag ur pisces szn

  8. I / I

  9. III / III