Caroline Bergvall

Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1962 to a Norwegian father and French mother, Caroline Bergvall grew up in Switzerland, Norway, and France with longer periods in the United States and England. She studied at Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, received an MPhil from the University of Warwick, Britain, and a doctorate from the Dartington College of Arts.

Bergvall’s collections of poetry and hybrid texts include Meddle English (Nightboat, 2010); Fig (Salt Books, 2005); Goan Atom (Krupskaya, 2001); Jets-Poupée (Rem Press, 1999); and Strange Passage: A Choral Poem (Equipage, 1993).

Bergvall’s works are noted for their combinations of performative, visual, and literary texts within the same project. Her artistic and performance work has been commissioned and presented internationally at Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Antwerp.

Of her practice, Bergvall says, “Thinking of the body as always having an accent, as being marked with a social accent rather than a seamless national literature, is a part of being in language and writing.” Poet Charles Bernstein calls her “one of the most brilliantly inventive poets of our time.”

Bergvall has served as the director of the innovative and cross-arts writing program at Dartington College of Arts and has taught at Temple University, Bard College, and the University of Southampton. She lives in London.