Priya Bains
Priya Bains (b. 1995) is a poet, poet laureate and critic. She made her debut in 2021 with the poetry collection Med restene av mine hender (Forlaget Oktober), for which she was nominated for the Tarjei Vesaas Debutant Prize. In 2022, she received the Festival Poets' Scholarship at the Bergen Literary Festival and the Olav H. Hauge Scholarship at the Ulvik Poetry Festival. She is a regular columnist in Morgenbladet, and she has long experience from Tidsskriftet Fett as a guest editor, writer and book manager. She has studied at the Writing Academy in Bergen and the Writers' School in Copenhagen, in addition to holding a bachelor's degree in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oslo. 2023 saw the publication of her rewrite of Swedish author Aya Kanbar's Hypervirkelighet (Solum Bokvennen) and more recently the Swedish-Norwegian anthology Alltid samme snø, alltid samme grense, which she co-edited with Burcu Sahin.
Priya was on a residency with us in May 2024. During her stay at Velferden, she worked on a dystopian long poem about summer heat waves, the ancient age of oil and man in crisis. During this period, Priya has been particularly interested in deep time, the millions of years we can read in the rocks in the landscape. She is also keen to develop a sensitivity to what is being lost during the climate crisis.
The opening of the long poem reads:
"I dream the rumbling of the water over the land masses / I dream the movement of the water over the rocks / I dream the tide tirelessly working / the currents of the deep sea, the murmur of the moss / the drops down the mountainside."
She herself says about her stay:
"It's been a wonderful month in Sokndal, with sunshine, lush surroundings and peace of mind. I've gone for walks in the sun, concentrated on my work and read for hours in the sun. It's also been rewarding to learn about the history of the local environment, with the mining operations that are expanding today. Mineral resources play a significant role in the climate issue, and it's been exciting to learn more about the political controversies, but also to experience the major interventions in nature with my own eyes. At Velferden, everything is in place for a good and stimulating period of work, and I'm already hoping that I can come back."
Photo © Priya Bains