Knut Ødegard is a maximalist poet, with a lush imagination and equally lush language. This is also true for this year’s long poem: From Samuel Pedersen’s Travel Journal.

Samuel Pedersen goes on a road trip with Inga in a home-made mobile home, bought on Gumtree for very little money. A purchase that isn’t necessarily a great deal. During the road trip Samuel writes a journal, where both events on the trip as well as his thoughts and imaginations take place. Inga is the same woman who comes along on their trip in 2019, but Samuel is just as interested in Olga, who died in a parachute accident in 2017. The journey takes them around North-Western Norway through rain and thunder, while the priest and the pope, relatives and roots, birds and mopeds show up in their own unique ways.