Betrayal, Butterflies, and the Metabolism

For the past 25 years, Danish poet Mette Moestrup has been an important voice in Scandinavian literature and public life. Moestrup made her debut with the poetry collection Tatoveringer [Tattoos] in 1999. In 2025, she published Butterfly Nebula, a sensual, thoughtful and enigmatic collection of poems based on the metabolism and the butterfly-shaped thyroid gland that controls it. Through personal experiences with autoimmune disease, Moestrup forges links between humans, other species, nebulae and outer space, and the broken metabolism between humans and the earth.

Poet Eira Søyseth, who previously translated Mette Moestrup’s Til den skjønneste [To the Most Beautiful, 2020], has now translated Butterfly Nebula into Norwegian. Søyseth and Moestrup will meet for a conversation about poetry and translation, but also about betrayal, butterflies, and the metabolism. The conversation will be moderated by Amanda Torsteinsdatter Hersvik, critic, programme coordinator at the House of Literature in Bergen and writing student at Skrivekunstakademiet.

The conversation will be held in Norwegian and Danish.