MISS READ: september 3 to 5, 2010

"For the second time MISS READ has invited international publishers and artists to show their artist books at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. As a genre of its own, the artist book reflects contemporary ways of artistic production and publishing to a great extent and also addresses issues of presentation and circulation as well as new strategies of distribution. Presenting a selection of more than 40 of the most active contributors in this field, the festival provides the rare opportunity to encounter and explore the contemporary scene of independent publishing."


more info & program me over at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art.

headline poetry

headline poetry displays poems sampled from headlines of german newspaper sueddeutsche zeitung. via lyrikmail.

almost missed the bad poetry day

adolescent poetry at its worst best at the frisky, a women's magazine i would probably ban in my kingdom.

Source

poem for a dead person

the years of billions before you have
unended where your hand let go
the linen white i think like everyone's -
you were the deadest glazed and air
at once you dandered out the door a smile
for billions of you before the years ahead
there's so much more to come (i'm thinking
endless silent laughter) than we had -




[rough translation:

für eine tote person

die jahre milliarden vor dir entendeten
als deine hand das laken ließ
weiß glaub ich wie das von allen anderen -
du warst der toteste ganz glatt und luft
und plötzlich schlendertest du aus der tür
ein lächeln für die milliarden dus die jahre zukunft
möglich dass noch viel mehr kommt (ich denke
unendliches stilles lachen) als wir hatten ]

the most commonly misspelt word in the english language

is 'seperate' 'separate', followed by 'definitely'. the british telegraph has a complete list of the top 20.

troglodyten [troglodytes] - written last fall

so streiche die schattenmorellen zurück in den busch
weich die stiele die blätter noch regenfeucht und nicht
ein einziger feuerstein für vor die höhle man singt sich
zu zweit in den schlaf übt die wandmalereien die speere
das schaf das den speeren entkommt . man hat sich 
verlaufen im eigenen tal aber wie das erklären -
da war keine fackel gesteckt da gab es nicht spuren von
bären nur vor allen wänden den funken nachsehen sie suchen
die muster in die sie sich wenden . wo wuchs diese 
plötzliche höhle und aus wessen händen glimmt licht / 




[rough translation:

troglodytes

so push the morellos back into the bush soft
the pedicals moist of the rain still the leaves and
not one single flint stone to rub by the cave and
one sings one another to sleep drawing murals
the spears and the sheep that outrun them . one loses 
her way in her very own valley but how to explain that -
there was no torch and no traces of bears just
the standing in front of those walls watching sparks
going up in a turning of ornaments . where did that cave
grow so suddenly out of whose hands glows that light /   ]

Source.

last night i ran into the bunch of students who are behind litaffin. they were really nice.

in an unrelated story, this morning i came across an article written in april that recommends berlins best three literaturcafes.

ever wished for a book cover archive?

today is your lucky day: http://bookcoverarchive.com/ - a great resource for designers, too.

Wär ich ein Buch (1973)

Via Sandra Uschtrin, who edits the most useful newsletter I have ever signed up for.

i blog, therefore i am

on 10 july 2010, i was speaking to a bunch of very clever FU students. the day's topic was narrative identity, so besides technical issues like how does a blog work and what is it good for, we also touched upon topics like does blogging help or hinder my writing and whether i am aiming at constructing a certain online image of myself, and if so why. i had prepared a little introduction and a couple of questions i was going to ask (like how many of you blog yourselves?) but didn't, because i forgot. so i had absolutely no idea about their previous social media knowledge and was constantly worried someone would fall from her chair, bored to death and all sweaty, as it was really hot that day. but as far as i could tell, christoph ribbat, one of the other two invited speakers, was the only one who fell asleep. into some microsleep maybe, but still, he was silently snoring right into my face. okay, i thought, this is it, you're in asia and that's how it goes here, no face-loss, it will never matter. i really liked christoph and his talk on alison bechdel's graphic novel 'fun home' and i think he got along with me okay, too, so i thought, well, let the man rest and hoped no-one would notice. and the students seemed with it, my talk i mean, which was the main thing. after i had finished, they had a long list of questions which i found interesting to answer, and i got very nice e-mail feedback: kerri drew me, complete with tattoo and necklace, and fredi left an encouraging comment. thank you for having me, i'd come back any time!

johann reißer was added to lyrikwelt.de

view his profile - including some work samples - here.

i was asked to promote this

tuesday night, hanna lemke will be reading stories from her new book 'Gesichertes' (reviews here):

tue, 13 july 2010, 8 pm, ballhaus ost, pappelallee 15, berlin - prenzlauer berg, 3 €

me talking at the FU tomorrow:

please find more information on the symposium here.

my poem 'verkippung' on fixpoetry.com

robert monat interpreted and discussed my poem verkippung on fixpoetry. thanks for that, robert!

(picture taken from postsecret.)

feldforschung [field work]

erwachen wegen radikalen
sonnenscheins. im traum du
der lichtpunkt (heimatort: - )
als kern einer seitenlang
endlosen welt und ich perle
als schmuck ab die fällt und
am boden singt nach mir ein
seltenes echo die dielen entlang
bis ein loch seinen rachen aufhält.
ich schenke mich her (dich: - )
auch ohne versteckte bedingung.



[rough translation:

awakening due to radical
sunshine. dreaming you are
the light spot (native place: - )
as core of an endlessly
page filling world and i roll off 
as one falling pearl and a very
rare echo sings after me along
the floors until some hole 
rips open its fauces. 
i'm giving myself away (you: - )
without hidden conditions as well.]

Congratulations!

I'd like to congratulate the jury of the Gernhardt-Förderpreis on giving at least half of their money to the very talented Martin Andreas Widmann, who was a participant of the Klagenfurter Literaturkurs I wrote about for FM4 in 2008. The other half of the Gernhardt price, 12.000€, received already famous author Peter Kurzeck.

(picture taken from postsecret.)