(image by sushi who is also working for DIE FREIE LANZE.)

i have started the third edit of my novella today. as per usual, i previously confused counting 'characters including spaces' with the ordinary word count - only this time to my disadvantage. turns out, my second edit lacks many more words than i thought it would. we'll see how comfortable i'll feel about padding as much. the original draft of the piece was almost triple as long as the second edit is, but i'm very content i cut out all that crap for good reason. in the third round now, editing takes me about an hour per A4 page, depending on how much i add. i'm starting to get a little excited at this point. still loads of work ahead, though.

zehn seiten

i've been wanting to post this link for a long while now. my personal favorites are rafik shami, gernot wolfgruber and stefan beuse. it's also interesting to note how benjamin lebert's voice changes once he starts reading. michael stavaric and thomas meinecke are featured as well.

american award-winning poet craig arnold went missing on a volcano hike in japan three days ago. peter parolin, head of the english department where arnold teaches, explained this by saying "he feels the need to go to places that people don't go and come back and tell us about them," on CNN. uhm, i know for a fact that he used to write poems about very mondane topics, too. either way, if you're in japan and happen to spot him, please tell local authorities.

zurich, 15 may 2009

my favorite book shop in zurich, pile of books, hosts another poetry & songwriter night - this time featuring anne blonstein and bobby vacant. due to a limited number of seats, they will be playing two sets, the first one starting at 7:30 pm and the second at 9:00 pm. in any case, it is highly recommended to make reservations. admission is free, which is unusual for zurich, however, small donations would be very much appreciated.

i wasn't gon' say nothin'

but i've changed my mind due to the good progress i made in the past week.

i am working on my first novella.

[pregnant pause.]

and i am halfway through my second edit.

it's rather short overall, which is why i wouldn't want to call it a novel. after all, it's really only an attempt. but as this started off as a blog about my being a writer, i'd like to let you know how i proceed.

so far, i've managed to develop a story idea that has been around for a while - about a year or so - into a prose script i still enjoy working on. this is a good sign as it shows that the subject is deep enough to immerse myself in. it's a first person-narrative and there's still plenty of research to do, though, reading up on some history, looking at pictures and stuff. not necessarily because i want to incorporate everything in it, but to get in the mood for padding the draft somewhat later on. i do have a title in mind as well, which crossed my mind roughly a week ago and, in a way, drove the whole project home for me. even if it will eventually turn out to have been just a working title, having one at this point helps me focus on the essence of the text.

i am very excited about this. and happy, too, that i am finally, finally scripting. what is more, it feels good to tell you about this and to bring this blog back to its roots as a work log. having said this - i'll keep you posted.

(taken from postsecret.)
((if you're into that kind of thing, try this.))

publishing on demand

the UK invented books to go.

draft and rough translation

lese eure stimmen / stimmt
dass sie in stille verschwanden
die stille die immer ist / aussen an jedem gehirn
es sind nicht die stimmen / die stimmen
es sind eure pausen / die luftholgedanken
die hängen an zeilen wie jenen die
raus sind aus eurem gekopf / aufs papier.


read your voices / right
they are now silence
like silence that's / outside of every brain
they are not voices / right
they are your silence / the deep breaths
that stick to your lines like the ones
that are outside your brainness / on paper.

DIE ZEIT has an article on johannes jansen, whom i read with at kaffee burger last december.

edition suhrkamp has published his new manifest, as they call it, this january: Im Durchgang.

there's more on johannes' work in general, adorned by one of ann cotten's drawings, over at in|ad|ae|qu|at.

how to revise

harvard business publishing has suggestions on how to revise an email.

should you be more interested in learning how to revise prose, you should have a look at richard lanham's works: either the longman guide to revising prose (2006) or just revising prose (2000).

nora bossong reading in berlin

nora bossong is going to read from her second novel 'webers protokoll' on 17 april 2009 at STUDIO der schaubühne, Ku'damm 135, from 22:30 on. i haven't read that book, nor have i read 'gegend', her debut, but i do like her poetry, and am thinking that her readings might be worth a visit. as the attentive among you might know, i have been trying to translate her poem 'leichtes gefieder' before, but unfortunately to no avail (yet). cover charge for the LESbar reading is 5,- € and you can make reservations here.

ron winkler on criticism of 'lyrik von jetzt' (23 march 2009)

der metroprolet dug out this today. (more on ron winkler @ wikipedia.)

oh well

so i didn't make it into the final 7 of the mdr literary prize. they said they received 1.890 short stories, many of which of "extraordinary quality". they will compile a book of some of those, but i certainly won't get my hopes up for being featured. it will be interesting to see who'll be going to win this prize, though. watch the readings and the award ceremony live on 4 may 2009 from 19.30 on MDR.

no news yet

from the mdr literary prize team. i'm thinking that that's a bad sign, as they said they would get back in touch by the 15th of april - finalistis, it seems, should be informed in advance, since they need to make travel arrangements and stuff. well, i haven't heard anything yet, so go figure.

another thing i have been contemplating is writing a fresh piece for this year's open mike competition. it's just that i can barely write at this point. no ideas, no patience, no words. that's the worst. no words.

bluetenleser has reactivated their newsletter to inform the german-speaking world about tv and radio programmes dealing with all things literary. the following documentary sounded interesting:

9. April 2009, 23:40 Uhr, arte
WIE WIRD MAN BESTSELLER?
Dokumentation, Deutschland 2008, SWR. Erstausstrahlung
Der Erfolg eines Buches wird meist in Verkaufszahlen gemessen. Wie viel Marketing steckt hinter einem Bestseller und was haben Qualität und Erfolg miteinander zu tun? Thomas Palzer beleuchtet den deutschen und französischen Literaturbetrieb zwischen Anspruch und Big Business.

hingehen!

(taken from postsecret.)

WOAW turns 2. nice.

as WOAW turns two, i am looking back on my relatively unimportant existence as a writer. so far, i haven't written a novel nor published a collection of poetry. i haven't spoken to agents or publishing houses and never finished a first draft of anything substantial. i have completed a meager four short stories and was never truly happy with their final versions.

the heedful ones among you might anticipate year three of WOAW to be no more productive than year two was. well, i wouldn't know. the outcome of undertakings like a sponsored literary journey to zagreb later this year (more details to follow in time) and the mdr literary prize (what are the odds!) will certainly have an impact on my motivation to put my material out there. further out than online, i mean, if that is at all possible.

soon i'll be featured in a reknown german magazine for contemporary literature. they sent an email asking whether i'd like to submit a poem for their next issue. i was asked to submit. just like with that literary trip that i was offered. now that means success to me. and WOAW deserves credit for much of that.

you, too, deserve credit, 'cause if there wouldn't have been a loyal readership out there from the beginning, i might not have stuck with releasing my stuff to the public. and by the way, i have never understood why you guys like my work. i do see how it differs from the rest of them in style, but i do not see how it's comprehendable or just in any way important. i guess it's evidence of sorts, like proof that i have lived here and partaken. even if just as an absentee.

i like to believe that WOAW eases absence. it eases the absence of poets, translators, readers, the absence of words, and the absence of sleep. maybe to some of you even the absence of me. thank you for missing, please stick around.


+ + WOAW is on facebook + + + add WOAW to your google reader + +

the best book i have read this year (so far)

thomas bernhard's prose piece meine preise. he wrote it in 1980, nine years before his death in feburary 1989. it's an angry piece, and a funny one, and most of all a brilliant one. i bought it only yesterday and have read it from cover to cover already.

another of his works i can greatly recommend is der untergeher (the loser), a fictional story around the life of famed pianist glenn gould.

ever wondered how to format a screenplay?

check this.

finally found: a sylvia plath interview

i like to break rules

habe mich leise vertanzt
in den trockenen gräsern des wildparks
hangabwärts zerstolpert
bin in deine arme gewankt
ich meine ich wäre dir mit meiner hand
in den nacken gekrochen verfallen am
zaunzeug das um uns verstand
das die tiere verhielt die lateinischen
affen und käfer und bären
uns zulaufen liess und beschnaufen
gewaltrand wo man sich noch sieht
im laub das zertreten
die schritte erinnert die kehrten.

i've quietly misdanced
in the deer park's dry grasses
destumbled down the slope
into your arms
i think i would have crawled my hand
into your neck prefalling from
the fences us to understand
what kept the animals the latin
apes the beetles and the bears
outcoming and subblowing us
the outbursts of the woods where one still sees
the leaves that have been crushed
the steps remembered, verted.

against the hype

following my high school motto, i have decided to say nothing about anything regarding books until the leipziger buchmesse is over. apart maybe from that bas böttcher has a new book out. this reminds me of a funny joke a friend of mine once made. awww, i'm in such a commemorating mood today.

medium funny, but nevertheless kind of interesting: some woman on creativity and anguish

cheers to my friend greg funnell who pointed this out to me!

listy list

here are a couple of upcoming events i wanted to inform/ remind you guys about:

27 feburary 2009, berlin
alistair noon will be launching his chapbook At the Emptying of Dustbins.
he'll be reading together with moon, mc jabber and lisa hollis, all of whom i have never heard of (is that bad?) and an 'incomparable' guy named joe czarnecki will be strumming a guitar.

9pm @ Coffee Karma. Sonntagstr. 30, Berlin-Friedrichshain (near S-Bhf Ostkreuz)

01 march 2009, berlin
KOOKbooks will be hosting a gala. i have mentioned this previously. the reading list is illustrius as usual. they, too, will have people who'll be strumming some guitars. check the facebook event for more info.

8pm @ Sophiensäle Berlin, Sophienstr. 18, Berlin-Mitte (near U-Bhf Weinmeisterstr.)

25 - 29 march 2009, rauris
tataaa, the 39th rauriser literature days. rauris is a tiny town in austria. i'm thinking the town is so small that they don't really need to mention where exactly the events will be hosted. if you wanted to do listen, you could check out this page here and email the responsible person. amongst others, raphael urweider and ron winkler will be reading there.

(taken from postsecret.)

a cushion has that cover / ein kissen hat dies bezüglich

Hotel Marienbad 005: Ann Cotten: Criticism & Cover

Monday, February 23, 2009, 7 pm

Barbara Köhler, author and translator, will present her flowing, carrying works in transmutation, acoustically and visually, at the Hotel Marienbad, upon invitation by guest #005 Ann Cotten.

i learn by going where i have to go

a friend brought the american poet theodore roethke to my attention. i should have heard of him earlier, but hadn't. here are a couple of poems, including the waking, which i particularly like. and here's a picture of the guy, too.

digital libraries

DIE ZEIT has an article on google, their efforts to digitize every book on the planet, especially the out of print ones, and the problems that arise thereof. trendsetting and interesting!

büro für kritik eröffnung impressions (minus everybody who doesn't like their face online. also, i'm only just getting used to that camera.)

Eröffnung: Hendrik Jackson's Büro für Kritik

the KW Institute for Contemporary Art is newly hosting hendrik jackson's Büro für Kritik (more info on their homepage soon). i think the idea is to anatomize other people's writing.

the opening of said three-dimensionality will be celebrated on sunday, 15 february 2009, 7 pm, at auguststr. 69, 10117 berlin.

i am definitely planning on going and might even bring a text or two. ann cotten, monika rinck and christian filips will be attending as well, which should make for a lyrically sound night.

**** update: more info on this event over at metroprolet ****

(taken from postsecret.)

soft rains animated

my friend Der Metroprolet currently features Ray Bradbury's complete story There Will Come Soft Rains.

ever wondered who seán rafferty was?

alistair noon has a very short bio.

KOOKread: Alphabet. afterthoughts

i just returned from a KOOKbooks reading in honour of inger christensen, the danish poet who died earlier this year. i'm thinking that after hearing what inger wrote, i might as well stop writing poetry altogether. not really, of course, but it did seem like there was nothing left to say at the end of her Alphabet poetry collection, the whole world's in this book, and the afterlife, too.

to my delight, the reading was very well organized. in fact, it was one of the very best readings i ever attended. not necessarily because the lecturers read particularly well, but mainly because it was thought out nicely - corresponding to the mathematical progression that inger had used as a scheme for her book.


if you're free on 1 march 2009: KOOKbooks is hosting a fundraising event in berlin; their motto is 'art needs patrons', so they will be selling some art. there'll also be dancing and drinking and singing and all, so perhaps that might be something fun to attend.

KOOKgala: Kunst braucht Mäzene!
Auktionsschau ab 18.30 Uhr. Auktion, Lesungen, Konzerte ab 20.00 Uhr
Sophiensaele, Sophienstraße 18, 10178 Berlin-Mitte

arbeitstitel: innen ist alles entzündet

das herz hängt am wieder
am haken am widerwä, wiederwer
baumelts zu dir
in den nabel das fusselgrab
ausheben. all deine toten
wie meine und widerbä, wiederbeleben
ins grün sein, die freiheit
verkordelt am schnurorgan
zwickt es gelegen. so
baumeln und ausheben
liegen und hängen und sehen:
das herz hängt am wieder, am haken
es baumelt zu dir.

Die Spürkönigin

luckily (?), a week-long bed rest allowed me to finish a prose piece to submit at this year's MDR Literatur-Wettbewerb. it's called Die Spürkönigin or The Sensequeen. i started writing it last december already, but only finished its umpteenth edit this afternoon. just in time, as it is, for the MDR competition. as usual, i am not allowed to publish it anywhere until i know whether i made it into the final rounds (wish me luck!), but i figured a paragraph of it in english could hardly hurt. so here goes:

I'll count up to hundred, that's what he said everytime I had asked him how long it would take us to get to the peak still, or rather the topmost spot, really, for the mountain wasn't much of a mountain in the actual sense of the word, but rather a stump hill. For a long time now rain's silver threads had made our pants stick to our knees, and even though we wore soles specially made for that kind of bad weather hiking, we slipped off the fields.

off topic: it's easy to see a tide turn!

for all you journalists and life and style economists

massenpublikum has an interview with brand eins chief editor gabriele fischer. in german, but very interesting! here is brand eins online.

(taken from postsecret.)

ou est le swimmingpool!

may i introduce to you ou est le swimmingpool, a band some friends of my ex-flat mates in london founded.

clearly, dance the way i feel is a song with hit potential. i added the acoustic version to the WOAW facebook group playlist.

MDR literaturpreis 2009

i am currently at my third edit for this year's MDR literaturpreis. it's always more difficult when there's no set topic. last year's competition was won by sudabeh mohafez (pictured by my humble self here), whom i remember to have a very empathetic and more classical style of writing. thus, i am not sure if there is, as the german would say, 'a flower pot to win' for me in this one. but i will try nevertheless. it has been quite a while since i have partaken in a literary competition. would be a good start into 2009, too. speaking of which - happy new year to you all!

re-writing wikipedia

michael stavaric, who was part of the FM4 Wortlaut jury 2008 and read with me at the prosafestival in innsbruck, was panned by DIE ZEIT for allegedly having copied wide parts of his new book 'magma' from wikipedia and other sources like the german encyclopedia.

i haven't read the book, of course, but i would like to take up the cudgels for michael to an extent. i mean, if it weren't for sites like wikipedia, a poem like gagarin (below) would have been written differently - patchier - or maybe even not at all. gagarin is a good example because i not only used knowledge i gained from the wiki article, but also some of the wording they used. like unglückliche verkettung verhängnisvoller umstände that i left inverted to mark the quotation. however, i am not stupid enough to think that you guys out there wouldn't notice. i know that you know that every good author reads up on his material. it does get problematic, of course, where no new spin or extra meaning is added. yet copying stuff word by word from an open source... can't be forbidden. i'm not saying it should be done, i'm just saying i can't be forbidden and should probably be regarded as a characteristic of the writings of our time. i'm pretty sure that earlier on in history, critics just had a harder time figuring out what sources novelists used as they weren't as easily accesible as they are nowadays - both online and in hard copy; if i'm not mistaken, books were never as cheap as they are today (in relative terms).

i haven't spoken to michael about this, but i'm thinking that he must have been aware of the simplicity with which this aspect of his writing technique could be 'uncovered'. just as it should have been clear to christian weiss of DIE ZEIT that he was going to find what he was looking for over at wikipedia and in the encyclopedia, because that's where authors gather information. in my opinion, it really all depends on what one makes of that.

here's a far more favourable recension of 'magma' by beate tröger of the FAZ, who is probably older than christian weiss and less internet-savvy. or maybe she just didn't care, because she liked michael's style so much.

gagarin (post-CCCR)

stellst dich vors leben wie juri
vom nordpol als erster ins all ging
dein mädchen, dein mädchen
ist da, kosmonaut. du mann,
dem der spielraum ausgeht.
und die unglückliche verkettung verhängnisvoller umstände
unkorrigiert. stimmt's nicht,
nur zwei mehr stabile sekunden
hätte der vogel gebraucht.
kopf im helm für den überschallknall.
streng glänzt der rote platz
in meinem discozimmer.


you rise before life just like juri
from the north pole rose as first man into space
your girl, your girl
has arrived, cosmonaut. you man
who's losing space.
and the unfortunate concatenation of fateful circumstances
still uncorrected. isn't it right
that that bird would have needed
just two more steady seconds.
head into helmet for the supersonic bang.
sternly gleams the red square
in my disco room.

you'll find a corresponding video to this poem over at the WOAW facebook group.

WOAW has its own facebook group!

if you care to join, please find it here.

in addition to what i publish here on the blog,
i will post music clips over there from time to time.
=> soon, there will be a WOAW playlist, too.
awesome, innit?

spontangedicht: vorweihnachtliche kulturkaufhoelle

der gang zum kaufhausklo
während das leben am tampon vorbeiblutet
alles so riesig hier aber doch nichts zu sehn das ich bin
in briefen die kommas vergessen falsch setzen und nie wieder je
danach suchen die zeichen die stimmen doch auch nicht mehr
wo sie mal sassen so liest sich das leben vorbei an den
polsterquadraten die blasen vom gluehwein geleckt.

i am working on my prose text for tuesday at this very moment and needing a break. i need breaks all the time when i write. during those breaks i do all sorts of things, walk up and down, grab a tea, and another, call someone up, or pluck eyebrows. the typical stuff. like now for example, i'm writing this post. it's such a shame i haven't really written any poetry lately, at least none i'd like to put up here. i think i might be getting a little more protective of my private matters as i am expanding my presence on the web... i am, for example, new to twitter - please feel free to add me. alright, i'll try and go back to work now.

AB JETZT: rumproleten !

i have been invited to blog for metroprolet, which is super. i have promised to deliver two posts a week, which is more than i am posting here on WOAW at the moment. i am hoping that a little professional pressure will increase my textual output. i know, i've said this many times before, but this time it's different, 'cause no one likes to let their peers down, right? i will blog in german over there, by the way. that's a first and should be mighty interesting.

speaking of which: ernesto castillo and johannes jansen will read at the labor in neukölln next friday, 12 december 2008. 8 pm onwards, i think.

oh yeah, and don't forget my own reading on 16 december 2008 at the rumpelofen/ kaffee burger. i am currently working on a prose text for that, so you'll get to hear fresh material.

post no. 400: DIE FREIE LANZE preliminary preliminary website launch !

die vorlaeufige vorlaeufige webseite meiner kleinen agentur ist online. wenn Ihr junge designer kennt, die freiberuflich arbeiten wollen, leitet sie ruhig an DIE FREIE LANZE weiter; jahrelange arbeitserfahrung ist nicht zwingend noetig, nur talent sollen sie haben.

the preliminary preliminary webpage of my little agency is online. should you happen to know young designers who would like to work freelance, please pass them on to DIE FREIE LANZE - years and years of work experience are not important, i much prefer talent.

sometimes facebook ads point out good things. today i noticed FRND.DE for the first time, an initiative that is working to prevent suicide. i think that's great.

four poems by alistair noon

here.

the other day on the tube i wrote a poem. i keyed it into my mobile and soon thereafter accidentally deleted it. i rewrote what i remembered and accidentally deleted that as well. now all i can remember of it still are three lines:

flogen uns seekrähen
(seekrähen, gibt's das?)
um unsre gedankenzufuhr

for all of you in vienna

°LUFTSCHACHT has new readings scheduled:

hanno millesi - 'der nachzügler' - 26.11.08, 19.30, literaturhaus wien, zieglergasse 26a

nicolas mahler and heinz wolf present their comic 'molch' - 27.11.08, 19.30, joanelli rauchsalon, gumpendorferstr 47-49

enjoy!

bin an dir liegengeblieben als vorlage
wie viele monate darf ich auf deiner matratze
ich habe bewegungserinnert die lichtschalter
tuerschwellenbreiten ich kenne die nachbarn
am schritt. es sind diese zeiten in denen die
flaggen an fenstern einfrieren verstehst du die leute
vergessen sich hier.

reading no. 1 in berlin!

needless to say, my nanowrimo is not going anywhere. i have been busy furnishing my apartment, baking cakes and buying furniture. like i said. i am also in the process of founding a little company.

i am planning on getting back to writing very soon, when i have more time to myself again.

on 16 december 2008, however, the rumpelofen will host my first reading in berlin. it will take place in my beloved kaffee burger. with johannes jansen i am in excellent company yet again.

if you can, please do come by. it's cheap.

gëzim hajdari

in today's lyrikmail was an untitled poem written by gëzim hajdari, an albanian poet whose works have been translated from italian into german by stefanie golisch. my italian is very, very basic, so when i translated this poem i translated the german version first, then secondly double-checked it as well as i could with the italian original. as usual, i allowed for a couple of translational liberties.


you know i would have scribed the most beautiful book
i have written with the tip of a knife
into my skin,
remember, that march, the Judas trees blossomed
with terror and joy at those valleys' verges.
perhaps the most beautiful book
emerged from my ashes and attuned to your life,
i wrote it in the vacancy of that room while looking out through that window
witnessing time and the recurrence of seasons
lost by rain's nudity.
i wrote it in penury,
on moonsick, culpable days,
far from you, from your gloamings,
from one waterside to the other i shouldered
books from a country that glorifies tyrants


Ich sagte dir, dass ich mein schönstes Buch
mit der Spitze des Messers
in meine Haut geritzt haben würde,
weißt du noch, März war, der Judasbaum blühte
erschrocken und freudig an den Rändern der Schlucht.
Vielleicht habe ich das schönste Buch,
das aus meiner Asche stieg und deinem Leben gleicht,
in der Verlassenheit jenes Zimmers geschrieben,
als ich aus dem Fenster blickte,
Zeuge der Zeit und der Wiederkehr der Jahreszeiten,
welche die Nacktheit des Regens streifte.
Ich schrieb es in äußerster Armut,
in mondkranken, verzweifelten Tagen,
fern von dir, fern deiner Dämmerungen,
trug ich von einem Ufer zum anderen
Bücher aus einem Land, das Tyrannen vergöttert


Ti avevo detto che il libro più bello
l’avrei scritto con la punta del coltello,
sulla mia pelle,
ricordi, era marzo, fiorivano i siliquastri
con spavento e gioia ai margini dei burroni.
Forse il libro più bello,
sorto dalle mie ceneri e che assomiglia alla tua vita,
l’ho scritto nella stanza sgombra mentre guardavo dalla finestra
il testimone del Tempo e il ritorno delle stagioni
sfiorate dalla nudità delle piogge.
L’ho scritto in povertà estrema,
nei miei giorni di pena e maldiluna,
distante da te, distante dai tuoi crepuscoli,
portando sulle spalle da una sponda all’altra
libri di un paese che adora i tiranni

berlin

i have arrived in berlin and am sitting on my wooden floors at the moment, watching my stucco ceiling. i can't believe i get to stay in this beautiful place for as long as i like. i mean, honestly, how much better can life get?

i have started nanowrimo today - haven't got too many words yet, but am not worried. i'm happy about every sentence i put down at the moment. each is better than none. plus i'm guessing that i could use quite a lot of what i jot down now later on. i'm a very slow writer. i have been a very slow writer all my life, so fuck pressure. there is absolutely no need to get stressed out about word counts set by strangers.

songs from utopia

rebekka schinz is here. many thanks for the link, dani.

undertaker please drive slow

i spent the evening at the pile of books, where my friend dani nufer celebrated his bookshop's first anniversary. he had invited brett davidson, who read from his prose 'undertaker please drive slow: brief encounters with kurt cobain, sterling morrison and kathy acker'. i really liked his style. undoubtedly, brett must have a homepage or something, especially since he is in a band called 'captain ludd' that produces awesome looking cd's like the one in the picture. i just can't seem to find him on the web. weird.



musicwise, dani had asked rebekka schinz to play, who is going to release an album soon, and who is pictured above strumming her sparkling turquoise guitar. her songs were lovely acoustic pieces, sarabeth tucek style, just how i like my music. but rebekka, too, doesn't seem to have a web address, or maybe it's just my incompetent day today and i can't find anything.

it was a really good night, and the pile of books is a really well-sorted english bookshop in zurich. should you ever be in the area, do drop by and say hi to dani from me.

oh, and 'undertaker please drive slow' is a line in a song called 'will the circle be unbroken' written by george jones, who is an american country singer. you can listen to a funny version of the tune sung by agnes chan here. you know, just in case you thought it sounded familiar.

(picture taken from pictures of walls.)

nanowrimo

rather spontaneously, i have decided to participate in this year's national novel writing month. actually, nienke brought it up the other day and it occurred to me that this year around, there is really no excuse. i mean, i will have many other things to do in between writing, but i guess that could be helpful, too, as i won't be able to sit at home all day stressing out about not reaching the 50'000 words goal the organizers have set. has anyone else thought about participating?

relocation

i have found a place in berlin much earlier than i thought i would. in fact, it was the first of only three i had a look at. it is a very nice flat: lots of space, phenomenal light, boarded flooring, stucco and a whole front of windows. i will spend a lot of time organizing things in the next couple of weeks, and will have to go down to zurich once more to get my clothes and kitchen utensiles, too. i am planning on being here from the beginning of november. it is all looking pretty good, and i feel very lucky. actually, the place is just like the one i had wished for.

i have been on the road a lot lately and not writing much, hence the rare posting. i'm hoping to get back to publishing more often by november or so. i will say, though, that there is an artsy little project in the pipeline...

club der lebenden dichter/ living poets' society

kaum gelesen,
noch seltner gehört,

von keinem erfolg
in der stille gestört,

so singt er mit wohlklang
den traurigen winden

bleibt meist ohne anhang
da keiner zu finden

die nächtliche kammer
bevölkert gelichter

stipendiert ist im
glücksfall das brot-

berühmt wird vom club
der lebenden dichter

ausschliesslich
wer hin ist und tot


katharina lanfranconi (*1948)

follow-up WORTLAUT 2008: DAS FEST

here's a report on last night's event, there are also some more pictures. pamela rußmann took them. it was a fun evening at a good location called Rabenhof.

congratulations again to all the winners and thanks for partaking, everyone!

WORTLAUT 2008: DAS FEST!

friends, if you want to meet me before i move to berlin, you should attend the

WORTLAUT 2008 FEST

in vienna on 2 october.

no, i am not depressed. it is just a great poem.

where these edges end

alexander gumz was kind enough to provide me with a more recent picture of his. thus, the post on him and his poem has been updated - see for yourself.

interview with myself, part 1

apparently, people have many questions about the below mentioned concept of Poetiken. clemens kuhnert compiled them, and gave them to a couple of authors to answer in 2003. i felt like answering some of them, too.

To you, when is a poem finished?

A poem is finished when it sounds round. I like smooth rhythms. A poem is finished when every word is equally important. Some of the poems I put on this blog are not finished.

Before you start writing, do you know where a poem will be going?

Not really, no. Mostly I do know how it will end, though, as the last line is usually the first one I come up with. If you want, I write poems backwards. The question for me is, therefore: Where does a poem start? What is it that lies at the heart of the matter?

Do you care how other poets treat a certain subject matter? Do you tend to follow trends?

I really don't care about what other poets write. Especially not when it comes to poetry. That might be a little different with respect to prose, which I find more important than poetry, because it tends to be more accessible. Personally, I find prose more difficult to write. It's a pain. My poetry is more spontaneous than my prose. Prose is a huge deal. That's probably the reason why I write so little.

I try to avoid trends like the plague, but I do notice a reoccurence of certain topics amongst the generation of writers I belong to. I think that is a) because people are much more alike than they like to believe and b) because zeitgeist and social surroundings take their toll on all of us.

the paris review has a good story up:

speak no evil by uzodinma iweala,

a young american writer who has received a whole lot of positive attention from reknowned critics. the story is a wee bit predictable, but very well written. his first novel 'Beasts of No Nation' was translated into German and published earlier this year. (picture source)

on the lack of female german intellectuals

DIE ZEIT is trying to find an explanation. i would like to point out again here that joan didion's the year of magical thinking is absolutely worth reading as well.

sunday lecture

if you're interested in pandora, her box, psychoanalysis and family secrets, and have an hour and a half of spare time, you should watch this video, created by the philoctetes center for the study of imagination. amongst other outstanding women, kathryn harrison (or here) is in it. she wrote the kiss, a controversial book which is incredibly well written and still one of my favorite books of all time. after i had read it in 2005, it took me two years until i was able to email her and let her know. she replied very kindly, which still means a lot to me. thank you, kathryn. picture source

alexander gumz - where these edges end

alexander gumz (picutre source: private) wrote a good poem called WO DIESE RÄNDER ENDEN. and guess what? i translated it. the german original is to be found below, as per usual.


WHERE THESE EDGES END

at the edges of loving you say
stands something annoying that won’t let you
leave here nor stay yet it is
(i can tell from your hands)
more than clear that you’re happy with things

the white signs visible so well
from above move
from under your soles when you
lift the key to the mouth
turn yourself around and say

you’d like to dance with all those who still
stand in the sun (in vast parking lots)
once a week finished off so that
customers leave as fast friends
so that you comprehend

where these edges end


WO DIESE RÄNDER ENDEN

an den rändern des verliebtseins sagst du
steht irgendwas und nervt lässt dich
nicht gehen und nicht bleiben obwohl
(das sehe ich an deinen händen)
mehr als klar ist du willst nichts daran ändern

die weissen anfahrtszeichen aus der luft
so gut zu sehen verziehen sich
unter deinen sohlen wenn du
den schlüssel an den mund hebst
dich um dich drehst und sagst

du willst mit allen tanzen die jetzt noch
in der sonne stehen (auf grossen parkplätzen)
einmal pro woche abgespritzt damit
die kunden auch als freunde gehen
damit dir endlich klar wird

wo diese ränder enden

who needs a german book prize anyways?

Peter Handke can obviously do without - he asked that his book Die Morawische Nacht be taken off the list of nominees for the prestiguous German Book Prize: "So that the younger authors stand a chance." While that is very generous of him in that the 25.000 € prize money is definitely not going into his pocket, I feel it should be on the jury to decide who most deserves it. By backing out, Handke avoids comparison not only to the younger authors, but to Martin Walser, too. The line between generosity, pretentiousness and headiness seems very thin at times.

(picture taken from pictures of walls.)

werbung ist ja eigentlich nicht meine art

aber das hier klingt lustig:

http://prokrastination.com/

die herrschaften passig und lobo in hoechstform... hoffentlich.

"It lays low the king's head by the wayside so that his hair sweeps the wayside dust as he whispers lewd words to himself and laughs and sticks out his tongue. Such is the nature of love."

Knut Hamsun, 2007: Victoria. Souvenir Press, pp. 36-37.

remember my valentine's day poem?

i know that some of you have been wondering about what's going on with the four-digit numbers... check this out:

(picture taken from postsecret.)

like i cared about valentine's day

i think i might just have missed you
thinking of me it is sixteen past three and
you know what they say about four-digit numbers
with all digits identical or repetitive or whatever
it's this hiccup that jumps up my throat
when you're about to smile it's me laughing at nothing
sometimes or just at a song i know you would like
it's how you look at me just right you see i think
there's never been a reason good enough so far you know
there's never been a reason good enough so close.

poetiken 2008

currently lauter niemand continue their Poetiken series (originally launched in 2002) on their homepage. besides julia trompeter, angela sanmann and kai pohl, i am featured, which is very nice. in addition to the Poetik, they also put up a text sample of each author. mine is Vom Klingeln, a rhyming prose text i wrote in berlin in the early summer of 2007. this is the same text they had chosen for their Lauter Niemand publication of november 2007.

my initial idea was to create a Poetik that was a collage of comments that close friends of mine made on my work. yet although i got great (and very flattering) responses, it turned out to be virtually impossible to amalgamte them into one single new prose text. each statement was far too original and powerful in its own right. so i held on to them until now. and even though - frankly - i would have liked to censor some of them, i decided to put them on this blog unedited*:

Das ist schon gar nicht mehr Literatur. Das ist schon eigentlich... wieder gut.
Sie ist unbedarft, das muss ich sagen. Ja, unbedarft. Und dann auch wieder... als hätte sie's gewusst. So rotzig es manchmal scheint, man merkt doch gleich: es ist liebevoll.
Es ist zu Gedicht, um Slam zu sein.

Gott sei dank hast Du aufgeschrieben was wir getan haben! Ich ahnte wohl, dass es intensiv war, aber durch die Ordnung Deiner Worte wurden mir die erst die gesamte Intensivität fassbar!

Anders als für Sirin, für den das Auto immer nur ein Mittel gewesen sein soll um stehen zu bleiben, -( «400 Kilometer durch eine bedrückende Landschaft auf der Suche nach ferniensis; 200 Kilometer für drei nielithea» soll seine Frau von einem Ausflug nach Kansas vermerkt haben), - spricht es für das postfeministische Selbstvertrauen der Autorin mit welcher Selbverständlichkeit von - teilweise tätowierten - Männern gesteuerte Personenkraftwagen zu rollenden Chill-Out-Zone werden und lässt eher Kombis mit Holzchassis assozieren, denn ein so gewöhnungsbedürftiges bis bockiges oder gar rassiges Gefährt wie den neuen Toyota M5 oder die langläufige Non-Chalance eines Ford Pick Up Trucks namens Taccoma.

Too many shortcuts! / Zu viele Abkürzungen !

ich lese deine texte gern, weil sie sprachlich wirklich eigenständig sind. ich liebe deine ungewöhnlichen bilder, die du für menschen und situationen schaffst, mit denen du sie beschreibst, und bin immer wieder überrascht und erstaunt, aus welchem blickwinkel du die dinge siehst. dein feines gespür für beziehungsfäden und stimmungsnuancen zeigt sich sowohl in der wortwahl als auch in der entscheidung für das tempo, das den einzelnen text charakterisiert. manche verdichtungen in deinen gedichten kann ich zwar nicht ganz entschlüsseln, aber es schwingt immer ein besonderes bild, eine aussergewöhnliche wortverbindung, eine von dir geschaffene stimmung nach.

Aufschlussreich autobiographisch.

"Es ist weich um mich, es wird immer weich um mich sein". Diese beiden Schlüsselsätze drücken die dem Leben und Werk innewohnende positive Kraft der jungen Autorin trefflich aus.

In den Rhythmus eintauchen. Vor lauter Rhythmus den Inhalt vergessen und manchmal ist es gut. Der Rhythmus oder der Inhalt?
Zuhören. Dabeisein. Weiterlesen.
Hoffen, dass das Schreiben einfach so - und nicht anders - passieren wird.


*this, of course, has been agreed upon by all the authors.

ann cotten links

a while back, ken sent me this link to a site that is dedicated to ann cotten, who now even has her own wikipedia entry.

the new yorker has a great article on one of
my favorite writers of all time, knut hamsun.

his novel hunger is among the best books i have ever read in my life.

i am currently reading victoria, which he wrote in 1898.

next on the list is growth of the soil of 1917, for which he received the nobel prize in literature in 1920.

bizarre

(picture taken from postsecret.)

translation request

someone asked me to translate rainer maria rilke's Liebeslied, so here goes:

lovesong

how to hold my soul so that
it won't touch yours? how to
carry it well over you on to what remains?
so much do i long to embed it
in things lost in dark
at a strange silent spot that
won't rock when your downs roll.
it is all that has moved you and i, us,
that sums you and i like a stroke
hums one sound from two strings.
which instrument is it we're strung to?
at what bandsman's hands?
o sweet song.


it sounds a little more modern than the german original i suppose, but rilke was 32 when he wrote it, so i guess that would still count as young and hip. for dustier translations, see here, or here.

older

schael mich aus meinem
geheimnis nun da wir
die sommer vergleichen
und aufgeben. aufgeben.
spatzen auf dieser schiene
des grauen gelaenders. nun.
nun und aneurysmen.
zehn jahre noch, freund.
zehn jahre noch an deinen
lippen.

lazy

okay, so i started translating that poem of 26 july 2008. somehow i can't make it work in english, but here are parts of it in case you're interested in what it's about:

tilts the horizon in front of the scuttle up
down and down up tilts unreasonableness.

[...]

all those first times are in flower still flowering
that valley's bed up and down by that stream and yet
time passed into nothing into just not passing at all

that sheer equatorial problem... [...]

[...]

up down up and down the unreasonableness.

a quick update

lately i haven't been up to much writing apart from the writing i do for my thesis. that's a shame, but unchangeable. the good news are that i am almost done and that i am almost done. with only 2000 words and one edit to go, i should be back at my pre-london authory self come mid-august. no more studying, no more exams, no more papers. sigh.