HALVT URNE, HALVT GRAL is a daughter's dark portrait of a family living in a graveyard, in a disused church. She digs in the soil, eats the remains of horses and drinks old water that was once piss or sea. Everything is turned upside down, everyone turns away from each other, and the mother puts pine cones in her children's shoes and sets boundaries that hurt. It is she who decides what and who is given room in the household's urn and grail.

Melanie Kitti's debut is a singular and haunting book about origins, rules and exclusion — and about the urge to fill the emptiness.

Melanie Kitti is a visual artist and author. Her practice moves between painting, sculpture and text. She trained at the art academies in Oslo and Copenhagen and at Forfatterskolen (the Danish Academy of Creative Writing) in Copenhagen. Kitti has exhibited at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, O—Overgaden in Copenhagen, the National Museum in Oslo, Damien & The Love Guru in Zurich/Brussels and Signal in Malmö, among others. She made her literary debut with the poetry collection Halvt urne, halvt gral, published by Gyldendal in Denmark in 2022 and by ellerströms in Sweden in 2025. She co-founded and ran the journal Abhivyakti (2021) and the artist-run space Destiny's in Oslo (2016–2022).

Nynne Roberta Pedersen has published the poetry collections vi hopper på åkander (2023) and chickenwings (2024). She works across music, performance, theatre and visual art, including at the alternative art school Bananskolen, and is co-editor of Magasinet Sorg og samfund (sosmegazine).

Lasse B. Ondesen is a musician and visual artist, and runs the music and poetry press Andres Arbejde.

B. Ondesen and Pedersen have collaborated for many years on music, performance, activism and publishing, and together made the film Halvt urne, halvt gral, which takes Kitti's poetry collection as its point of departure.