MARLA GOES NORTH
Notes from a life between landscapes.
Marla Goes North is a collection of essays, field notes, and reflections written from Norway and beyond.
2026 marks two milestones for me: ten years since I first visited Norway through a monthlong stay with WWOOF Norway, and five years since I left full-time life in the United States.
Both experiences have reshaped my direction and the way I live.
Born and raised along the banks of the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, I now find myself following my great-great-grandfather’s path in reverse. In 1861, he left his home in Marifjøra, located at the end of the longest fjord in Norway, for a new life in America.
Part field journal and part creative practice, this site explores what it means to be rooted in two landscapes. I write about place, migration, music, loss, nature, and the process of reclaiming my one wild and precious life.
“Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” ― Mary Oliver
Over time I’ve grown more curious about place, migration, belonging and what it means to live deliberately within the time we are given.
I was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and grew up in Retreat, an unincorporated community along the Mississippi River, near where Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa meet.
My childhood followed the rhythms of the land. Summers meant work in tobacco fields and long days outside. I spent my time fishing in creeks, picking berries, camping, getting lost in Laura Ingalls Wilder, riding horses, building fires and forts, studying maps, and daydreaming about faraway places and people.
I was a first-generation college student and earned a degree in Human Ecology from the University of Wisconsin. For nearly two decades I worked in public education in Madison.
Along the way I also spent time on the Mississippi Gulf Coast supporting recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. There I saw how people lean on one another when everything feels uncertain, and how rebuilding happens slowly through ordinary work and human connection.
In 2020, the pandemic and political unrest disrupted many of the assumptions I had about stability and the direction of my life. Like many people, I slowed down and took stock. I began asking harder questions about how I wanted to live and what my future self might say about the choices I was making.
I began thinking more about freedom, autonomy, and agency, and about setting myself up for a future of my own choosing rather than simply moving along within systems that had been laid out before me.
My outlook today probably sits somewhere between stoic self-governance, Camusian rebellion, and Thoreauvian independence.
Today I live in a small village on Norway’s west coast between Bergen and Stavanger while I await a decision on my residency application. I work remotely, write, and spend time in nature, embracing friluftsliv as both a daily practice and a way of seeing the world.
I am learning the language, building community where I can, practicing patience, and finding my footing in a landscape that feels both familiar and new.
This is an attempt to live one small life with curiosity, independence, and close attention to the world around me.
Velkommen til Marla Goes North.
 Tobacco: The Family Crop | De Soto, WI |  Rebuilding houses | Biloxi, Mississippi |  De Soto, WI |
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 2008 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project | Mississippi, USA |  Feral farm girl | De Soto, WI |