VIOLET OR cardinal red the colour of my heart A flame burns there I cannot quench Now when I will soon forget words I see myself young and bent over in a landscape I cannot recognize With The Red Place, Lars Amund Vaage has written a rich and complex poem that radiates great tenderness for the different dimensions of life. The poet takes us on a journey inwards and backwards in time. He is visited by the dead, by his mother and by his father. Music plays an important role in the poet's life, and we see him at the piano as a child, a young man and as a grown man. Dictation is related to music that is different and may be more lasting than words. The music also becomes a picture of the wonder and composition of life, the beautiful we see in the shadow of death.

Lars Amund Vaage (b. 1952) made his debut in 1979 with the novel Ovelse kald vinter (Cold Winter Exercise). Three years later he broke through with the novel Fager kveldssol smiler. He has since written a number of novels, collections of short stories, children's books and poems. He has received many prizes for his publications, including the 1995 Critics' Award, and the Aschehoug Prize the same year, for Rubato. He was also nominated for the Nordic Council Prize. He has been awarded the October Prize, the Gyldendal Prize and the Dobloug Prize for his life's work. The novel Syngja (2012) received rave reviews. Vaage received the Brage Award, Nynorsk Literature Prize and was nominated for the Critic Prize for the book. Den vesle pianisten (2017) is Vaage's nineteenth book for adults. He has translated American poet Lorine Niedecker's North Central (2003), Joy Harjo's Getting Back from the Enemy (2006), and Bob Arnold's True Dream (2009). In 2007, he published a version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. The Red Place is Vaage's third collection from Shearsman.