Burning Tongues by Aleš Šteger, trans. Brian Henry Karen Solie and gut punches that send

and gut punches that send the reader off balance

imaginative and technically brilliant of the Old Norse skalds

always fascinated by the stories and symbolic presence of Lyonesse

Stamatis Polenakis

these poems use geographical and historical references to deepen and inform the narrative

Burning Tongues by Aleš Šteger, trans. Brian Henry Karen Solie and gut punches that sendAle teger was born in 1973 in Ptuj, Slovenia, where he grew up, then part of the former Yugoslavia ruled by Tito, which gained its independence when he was 18. He published his first collection at the age of 22, Chessboard of Hours in 1995, and was immediately recognised as a key voice in the new generation of post Communist poets not only in Slovenia but throughout central Europe. Notable for its moral engagement, tegers poetry is acutely precise in