To write poetry is to live between worlds. Every line stretches from where you come from to where you are now, pulling pieces of memory and identity into something that speaks both to the past and the present. For many migrated writers, poetry becomes the bridge, a way to hold on to roots while carving out space in a new place.
Kitty Steffan’s Ruthless is a vivid example of this kind of writing. Born in Rădăuți, Romania, and later moving to Sweden, she carries two landscapes: one shaped by Romanian grit, family traditions, and history; the other shaped by Scandinavian modernity, independence, and reinvention. Instead of choosing one or the other, she writes between them, allowing the tension to give her voice its fearless edge.
The Romanian influence comes through in her strong connection to family and heritage. She writes about grandmothers, survival during war, and the unshakable strength of women who gave even when they had little. These stories of resilience echo throughout her poetry, showing how deeply one’s homeland can shape a worldview. They form the ground beneath her feet, the memory that fuels her sense of belonging even while far away.
However, Sweden, too, has left its mark. It is in Sweden that Steffan found space to study, to write, and to reinvent herself. The distance from Romania allowed her to rebel against some of the expectations placed on her and to explore her voice more freely. This dual existence, Romania in her bones, Sweden in her present, creates the rebellion and reinvention of Ruthless. The poems carry both tenderness and sharpness, a mix of cultural inheritances and personal discoveries that could only emerge from living in two worlds simultaneously.
Themes of identity and migration are never simple. They bring both belonging and displacement. Steffan’s work does not smooth these edges; it embraces them. Poems like “Groundmother” or “Moartea Domnului Biban” show her Romanian roots in their raw honesty, while other pieces draw on the self-awareness and independence that living abroad sharpened. In this way, her poetry mirrors the reality of many immigrants: the feeling of being home everywhere and nowhere at once.
What makes Ruthless stand out is its lyrical power and refusal to hide the contradictions of migration. Belonging comes with loss. Reinvention requires rebellion. Writing between two worlds means carrying both the weight of memory and the freedom of starting over.
For readers, her poetry offers more than a glimpse into her life. It provides an intimate look at how identity is shaped when you move across borders, and how art can hold together the pieces of self that migration scatters.
If you want to experience how these themes come alive in raw, confessional verse, Kitty Steffan’s Ruthless is a debut worth discovering.
