I Walked On into the Forest is her twelfth book of poetry, her first since One Evening in October I Rowed Out on the Lake (2012/2015), the collection which followed her celebrated trilogy, I Studied Once at a Wonderful Faculty (2003), published in English translation by Bloodaxe in 2006.

In some sense a continuation of the previous collection, Forsström’s new book focuses more acutely on the themes of death and grief, and in particular the devastating loss of her beloved granddaughter. It shows her poetry’s tone of inner discourse shifting imperceptibly towards a new and harsh gravity. As Sweden’s August Prize jury commented on her work as a whole, this is poetry ‘both melancholy and impassioned’, expressing a ‘struggle against meaninglessness, disintegration, destruction – against death in life’.

From the reviews of I Walked On into the Forest (Anteckningar):

‘Forsström has Finland-Swedish modernism in her bloodstream but has kept a coolly timeless tone in her poetry. Her style can with some reason be called classical… What we read slowly reveals its true poetic face – the face of the lament, the elegy… It’s most beautifully and bravely done.’ – Magnus Ringgren, Aftonbladet, Sweden

‘Tua Forsström writes poetry that comes stealing up on you. There is something curious about her poems, a way of adhering to the world that is hard to put one’s finger on.’ – Hadle Oftedal Andersen, Klassekampen, Norway

‘Tua Forsström’s poems have a habit of transforming themselves each time one comes back to them.’ – Erik Skyum Nielsen, Information, Denmark

‘I don’t know what I am going to need on the day that I have to face major loss, but I’m already writing a reminder to myself to go to the bookshelf then and pick out all of Tua Forsström’s books.’ – Anna-Lina Brunell, Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland