ancient poetry blog (anno 2006)

here.

'a drifting cloud is just a drifting cloud'

in front of an audience of about forty people, catherine hales launched her poetry collection 'hazard or fall' at cosy café hilde yesterday night [see this post], and i thought her reading was very satisfactory: not too long, not too short, neither boring nor incomprehensible (although reading somewhat slower would have helped). i like catherine's rather prosaic style, it just makes enjoying her poems so much easier - especially when they were put into context through little personal anecdotes: knowing, for example, that as a kid catherine wanted to become an archaeologist, sheds a whole new light on her work, too.

highlights:
'it's when you part your lips that the problems begin'
'our lives crossed like the shadow of a bird in flight' 
'why have a thousand gods when one is one too many?'
'the creatures crawl into their caves, expire'

"singularität ist [...] auch ein irrtum"

ron winkler answered a couple of questions about his new poetry collection Frenetische Stille at fixpoetry.com.

two top literary events in berlin this wednesday

this event !!! HAS BEEN POSTPONED !!! is particularly interesting, as it addresses an important topic: how much religion is good for our kids? helge nyncke, the illustrator of "Wo bitte geht's zu Gott?", will be reading from the book that the German Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women & Youth tried to index because of its critical engagement with religion (but didn't succeed! check this brief spiegel article), and also from „Susi Neunmalklug erklärt die Evolution“. 
instead there will be some discussion about the future of the catholic church. no reading now!!!
14 april 2010, 6.30 pm, club der volkssolidarität, torstr. 203 -205, 10115 berlin - prenzlauer berg

WORTHY ALTERNATIVE --> catherine hales will be launching her new poetry collection 'hazard or fall' at café hilde. i got a little sneak peak of her work the other day and can assure you that, if you like english poetry, you will enjoy this event. try gistsandpiths for some samples of her work. plus, from what i can tell, two thirds of the berlin poetry scene will assemble there.
wed, 14 april 2010, 7.30 pm, café hilde, metzer str. 22, 10405 berlin - prenzlauer berg

#fail

i was meaning to attend the danaghie & co poetry reading last night so that i could write about it here, but the restaurant took forever to prepare our food (just around the corner! we sat down at 8 pm!) and when we got to the location at 9.30 pm it was packed and there was no way to get in without interrupting. [phew, that was a long sentence!] so i just waved hi to kim through the window and buggered off... what a shame, sorry joseph!

short notice: event in berlin tonight

the lettrétage hosts swiss poet pietro montorfani tonight. an actor will be reading from his work. 5€ cover charge, start 7.30 pm. more info here.

(picture taken from postsecret.)

three literary events in berlin this week

wed, 07 april 2010, 8.30 pm, st. george's bookshop, woerther str. 27, 10405 berlin - prenzlauer berg, free!
great idea: monthly read-around! more info here.

thu, 08 april 2010, 8 pm, literaturwerkstatt, knaackstr. 97, 10435 berlin - prenzlauer berg, 5€
john mateer and jan wagner. poetry reading in english and german. more info here. 

fri, 09 april 2010, 9 pm, cafe 'alice gryphius', gryphiusstr. 10, 10245 berlin - friedrichshain, free!
gunter scholtz, gerhard schneibel & joseph danaghie. poetry reading in english and german.

happy easter, everyone!

(picture taken in peru by ariane, who is sailing the world on suleika.)

twitter preview on WOAW

as you might have already noticed, i've added a twitter widget to the blog's sidebar. if WOAW loads a little slower on your browser now, that's the reason. the idea was to keep you up to date with thoughts and news that never become blog posts even if you aren't on twitter yourselves. if you are on twitter already, but too lazy to check back on my page every day, this feature might be of use to you, too. i also plan to update the sidebar altogether some time later this year, sort through the link list, add blogs like ron winkler's, that kind of stuff. don't worry if WOAW looks a little different from time to time, i'll be sure to let you know when i'm done...

three events in berlin and toronto this week

in BERLIN, there are two readings this week: there's another interesting KOOKread event on

thu, 01 april 2010, 8 pm, kvartira no. 62, lübbener str. 18, 10997 berlin - kreuzberg, ?€

annika scheffel, björn kern and ron winkler will be introducing their new books. more info here.

and then there's philip sington reading from his recent novel "The Einstein Girl" at st. george's bookshop in prenzlauer berg.

wed, 31 march 2010, 9 pm, st. george's bookshop, woerther str. 27, 10405 berlin, no cover charge.

 

in TORONTO the BARRACUDA anthology celebrates its launch. (a cool writers-in-school program, more info here!) 

wed, 31 march 2010, 7 - 9 pm, gardiner museum, 11 queens park, toronto (ontario), no cover charge.

i'm in the new lauter niemand

in my mail today i received three voucher copies of the current lauter niemand 10th anniversary edition. i've been featured with a long poem i wrote in 2007 called "tanz aus narkose", alongside people like johann reißer and monika rinck.

i dug out the last paragraph of an older version of that poem for you:

ich in tüll laken lackkleid nag am fensterrahmen bricht licht in triangelstrahlen staub wendet sich blendet und ich urban es urbakterium will unter wasser ober flächen molekül sein mir von dir mit spitzen lippen zeigen lassen wie die fische machen algen mähen zwischen heiligen korallen mit dir fieberpirouetten drehen in tiefsee kissengraben sinken auferstehen als dampf noch einmal durch die nacht als regen wieder niedergehen...

[very, very roughly, this could be something like:

i in tulle sheets varnish dress gnaw on the window frame breaks light in triangle rays dust turns blinds and i urban it ur-bacterium wanna be under water over surface molecule wanna be taught by you with lips pursed how the fish make mow algae inbetween holy corals dance fever pirouettes with you sink into deep sea pillow trenches resurge through the night once more as steam once more as rain alight...]

one of last year's poems reworked

wir haben ein sternbild gesehen:

da endet die welt und die faust die

die kabel an die unser leben gerät

hält ist männlich . man war

fünfmarkstückgroß in eine wand

genagt für ratten die leitung

um leitung gekannt hatten abfall

als kunst in die sphären gehoben .

weit hinten verriet uns ein unruhiges

mädchen geheimnisse über das irdischsein .

[rough translation:

we'd seen a constellation:
there ends the world and the fist
that's been holding the cables that 
sustain our lives has been male . 
one was a hole chewed into some wall
five deutschmarks wide for rats
who knew the wires praised all 
rubbish into highest spheres .
at the very back an anxious girl
gave away secrets on being terrestrial .]

(picture taken from postsecret.)

two readings, one review, and my big mouth

this week, i went to two readings: alistair's and peter's, and the one alexander gumz organised for the launch of his and moritz schramm's ny tysk poesi anthology (arena verlag, kopenhagen, 2009). both were good events and sold out deservedly so.

dialogue berlin provided a great venue, and its owner sharmaine was a great hostess - i'm sure we'll be hearing much more about her events and initiatives soon. i always enjoy literary events in english, as the authors and audience tend to not take themselves as seriously as most germans: a little more fun, a little less intellectual masturbation... which takes me right to the reading on wednesday:

like i said before, the line-up was impressive - and its proximity to KOOKbooks undeniable. one gets the impression that alexander gumz has a couple of people on his speed dial that he rings up whenever reading slots need to be filled. while this is understandable, i would have loved to hear people like raphael urweider or nico bleutge read for a change, poets that are also featured in the anthology, but that you don't hear of as much.

highlights of the reading included:

"oh, danke, nacht, geh heim nach finnland"  ["oh, thank you, night, go home to finland"] - steffen popp
"dein kanarienvogel sah heute so seltsam aus" ["your canary looked somewhat strange today"] - daniel falb
"schön wäre ein regen nach oben" ["i'd like an upward rain"] - ron winkler

free poetry reading in hamburg tomorrow

tom schulz, gerald fiebig, richard duraj, and jinn pogy will be reading to celebrate the brand new edition of randnummer magazine tomorrow:

sat, 27 march, 8 pm, POW galerie, haubachstr. 7a, hamburg - free of charge!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, WOAW!

WORDS ON A WATCH turns three today, and for me that means party introspection: how has the internet changed the way we writers work? as this is quite a complicated question, i'm glad sibylle berg has already answered it generally here, so i'll be ok to just speak for myself:

to me, the internet is

...a space to express myself in a myriad of ways, to get active and launch projects like the #50bookschallenge or girls can blog
...my very own trade fair - networking through facebook and twitter has never been easier than today. i've just started sorting the people i follow into lists, perhaps they're of use to you, too? 
...my mobile notebook-anthology-brain-hard drive-event calendar-desk-gallery. to me, the web is a very visual place that i like to hang out in
...a motivator to get things done. as is my readership. i think that if your number hadn't gone up steadily over time, i would have given up long ago
...an ideal place for feedback. both incoming (examples here, here, and there) and outgoing (like here by myself and here by guest commentator oliver bottini). i love feedback and guest articles, so please keep them coming!
...an ideal place for announcements, too, like here and here.*

basically, WOAW is still a personal poetry blog, thick with opinion. if you're here for my poems only and never know where to look for them, click here and save that link. the newest poem will always come first. watch out, though, not all of them are ready for press just yet; from time to time i put up stuff just because i was so glad i had written anything at all. my writing periods are usually intense, as is my current writer's block. i don't have control over either.

i was going to go into last year's WOAW birthday speech a little more, but when i just read it, it sounded awfully negative. i think i was in a pretty bad place then and am very glad that i could move on from there in the second half of 2009. i went on said literary journey to zagreb, spoke to an agent (only to find out my novella was too short for publication still), and got published in important media like lyrikmail. i wonder what 2010 has up its sleeve...

thanks in any case for sticking around!
annina

*it seems like i forgot to annouce that i got published in the current edition of [sic] magazine? oops!

it's reading week

besides the poetry reading on wednesday i recommended yesterday, there's also sibylle lewitscharoff discussing adolph freiherr knigge's work in charlottenburg:  

wed, 24 march 2010, 8 pm, literaturhaus berlin - großer saal

more info at the literaturhaus berlin.

and for everyone who doesn't feel like going to alistair noon's poetry reading on thursday, try fadi saad in berlin - wedding. his reading will take place at the medienhof, a project i freelance with, and it was organised by the kids we teach; the cover charge is only 1 €, and money is generally appreciated there as funding is hard to find even for established organisations like this one. (more info on fadi's book at herder verlag. photo by rebecca @ DIE FREIE LANZE.)

thu, 25 march 2010, 6 pm, medienhof wedding, prinzenallee 25/ 26, 3. hof

THE poetry reading this week

the poetry event this week (besides peter riley's and alistair noon's reading on thursday) will be taking place on

wed, 24 march 2010, 7.30 pm, methfesselstr. 23-25, 10965 berlin - kreuzberg, ca. 5€

ann cotten, daniel falb, steffen popp, monika rinck, and ron winkler will be reading from their work to celebrate the launch of a bi-lingual danish anthology of german contemporary poetry: Ny tysk poesi - 13 tyske lyrikere, alexander gumz & moritz schramm (hrsg.), arena verlag, kopenhagen 2009.

(picture taken from postsecret.)