16 New (to American Readers) German Poets

A magazine issue with poems by Ann Cotton, Franz Josef Czernin, Michael Donhauser, Ute Eisinger, Daniel Falb, Hendrik Jackson, Marget Kreidl, Bert Papenfuss, Steffen Popp, Monika Rinck, Farhad Showghi, Hans Thill, Raphael Urweider, Anja Utler, Ron Winkler, and Uljana Wolf.

Translated by Andrew Duncan, Tony Frazer, Nicholas Grindell, Christian Hawkey, Ann Cotten, Ute Eisinger, and Rosmarie Waldrop.

The poets in this magazine issue, mostly in their thirties and forties, show great formal diversity. The works range from the sound explorations of Anja Utler to the camp sonnets of Ann Cotten; from Czernin’s puns and permutations to Rinck’s and Falb’s deceptively simple parlando; from Donhauser’s grammatical disruptions to Papenfuss’s baroque lists and “sassy East tone.” But they all share a concern with form and with language as material. The poets have also all received at least one prize.

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“An important window into what is being written now…. these translations give a very good impression of the original German poems, as free as possible and as literal as necessary to work as poems in English.”—
Catherine Hales, Jacket 37 http://jacketmagazine.com/37/r-dichten-rb-hales.shtml

“That I should read you/ as you would reach me” writes Ute Eisinger in a new collection of innovative German and Austrian poets in their thirties and forties. Three of my favorites are Anja Utler, Franz Josef Czernin (one of the elders), and Uljana Wolf. Here, we’re given more ample selections of the poets and so we get more of a chance to come under their spell… Among the translators are the excellent poets Christian Hawkey, Andrew Duncan, and Rosmarie Waldrop.”—Forrest Gander http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/11/europe_dont_look_away_16_new_g.html