Poetry on the Rise

Claudius Niessen introduces us to Germany’s most important and promising new poets.

It’s Buchherbst [Autumn Books] in Germany, and the 8th International Literature Festival is being held in Berlin. While most cultural events are taking place in the elegant, bourgeois ambiance of West Berlin’s Festival House, a small group of younger authors have headed for Clärchen’s Ballhaus in Mitte. When the waiter serves drinks, the floorboards creak, the mirrors on the walls are cracked, and the hall radiates a morbid and lusty fin de siècle charm.

New German Voices have been announced: Two of the most important talents in German language poetry are reading with Ulrike Almut Sandig and Steffen Popp. Over a hundred people in the audience are eagerly listening to what Sandig has to say about her poems. A few introductory remarks about the difficulty of writing certain texts. Very quietly, very authoritatively, so that even those without much of a poetic background are anxiously awaiting the small pieces of art.


Zunder [Cinder]

Overall: Ulrike Almut Sandig and her colleagues can read and perform: with emphasis, not too slowly, but also not too fast, each word is chosen precisely, in a clear voice. After her 2006 debut entitled “Zunder” Cinder was published, she won the Merano Poetry Award and the Hertha- König-Award. While in Sydney and at an artist’s residence in Ahrenshoop, she wrote her second collection of poems entitled: "Streumen.”


Streumen

Reviewers asked whether the young poets should be considered as a group, calling it "new subjectivity" or "new fragility." Be that as it may, one thing is certain: the young authors are very aware of forms and traditions, without letting themselves be limited or constrained by them.

They write vividly, but their language isn’t overwrought. "It’s close to everyday language," as Enno Stahl recently said on Deutschland Radio. And he quite rightly remarked: "The poem, in its brevity, in its scarcity and concentration, is the currency of literary innovation."

But it’s a tough job. That the authors are often published in small editions; by small publishers, i.e. by enthusiasts, isn’t just a phenomenon of young, contemporary poetry. And it’s not that large publishing companies aren’t crazy about books, but for poetry there is often too little time.

When publishers risk their money on a new young voice with an edition of 1000 or 1500 books, that’s how self- exploiters end up getting a chance. If they sell six hundred books, it can be considered a success. Spitzweg’s poor poet sends his regards.

The Leipzig-based publisher and bookseller Peter Hinke of Connewitz Verlagsbuchhandlung [Connewitz Books] won Germany’s most prestigious prize for the best book series in 2007. Aside from Ulrike Almut Sandig, he also has published works by the promising poets Mara Genschel and Kerstin Preiwuß in his award-winning series “Edition Wörtersee.”

One might conclude that like Georg Mauerer did in the past, he is starting a new Saxony school of poetry, stimulated, of course, by the nearby German Literature Institute, where famous prose writers Juli Zeh and Clemens Meyer, and poets like Ulrike Almut Sandig had studied.

Before the poets get a book of their own, they are often published by one of the young literary magazines like "Edit" from Leipzig, or "Bella triste" from Hildesheim. According to them, German poetry has: "many voices, a whole kaleidoscope. It’s cacophonous; there is no single poetry, nor a style or a school."

The weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" has published a photo series of full-page author portraits in its redesigned special supplement for the Frankfurt Book Fair. Young poets were included, from Nora Bossong and Daniela Danz to André Rudolph and Jan Wagner. They said in a press release: "The images tell us about their world view, that is, how they see the world through their poems.” Some would have liked a bit more text, either about the authors, or written by them. Because all of them are extraordinary young poets.

Overall, the list of young poets in their late 20s, early 30s is a lot longer than we’d have expected, especially given the alleged number of young authors in the literature business who want nothing more than to be popular and marketable: Nico Bleutge, Nora Bossong, Ann Cotten, Crauss, Daniela Danz, Carl Christian Elze, Daniel Falb, Nadja Master Chef, Björn Kuhligk, Dagmara Kraus, Norbert Lange, Steffen Popp, Monika Rinck, André Rudolph, Silke Scheuermann, Christian Schloyer, Tom Schulz, Rafael Urweider, Anja Utler, Jan Wagner, Ron Winkler, Uljana Wolf.

For all the fuss about Bestsellers and superficiality, real changes in literature are to be found—first and foremost— in poetry. This gives us reason for hope.

Awards and Competitions

Leonce and Lena Prize, Darmstadt
www.literarischer-maerz.de

Open Mike, Berlin
www.literaturwerkstatt.org

Merano Poetry Prize
www.kuenstlerbund.org/de/lyrikpreis

Horst-Bienek-Prize for Poetry
www.badsk.de/modlbie.html



Publishers

Kookbooks
www.kookbooks.de

Connewitzer Verlagsbuchhandlung
www.cvb.de

Lyrikedition 2000
www.lyrikedition-2000.de



Magazines

Krachkultur
www.krachkultur.de

Edit
www.editonline.de

Bella triste
www.bellatriste.de

Intendenzen
www.intendenzen.de

[Translated by Zaia Alexander]