how bizarre

 

via zoë beck 

consens recommends...

a couple of upcoming books and events, among them michael stavaric and johannes weiberger's new books. please click here for more info.

i'll be reading on thursday, 13 january 2011

and that in berlin-neukölln at the altes finanzamt. broken dimanche was kind enough to invite catherine hales and myself to read at the launch of their most recent issue of kakofonie journal. there will be short films and videos from 9pm onwards, and our poetry readings will start around 10pm. it's going to be a bilingual english-german night, so i'm thinking i'll bring my novella along as well and maybe read a couple of paragraphs from it, too. there'll be a (small?) cover charge. here's the link to the event's facebook page.  (photo by ann cotten.)

DESCANT is calling for submissions

attention writers: the deadline for two upcoming themed issues — BOSNIA, BETWEEN LOSS AND RECOVERY and RENOVATIONS — is 15 march 2011. they are requesting submissions of unpublished fiction, poetry, essays and photography. for submission guidelines, visit: descant.ca/submit.html 

where did the night go

 

as seen on consens.

i, coleoptile

yesterday, i was quite surprised to find in my mailbox a copy of i, coleoptile, ann cotten's new book published by broken dimanche press. it's got interesting black and white photography by kerstin cmelka in it, and, slightly more importantly, ann's poetry. i can't read all this now, but it looks like i'd like it, and i already wonder who enzo is (again: no time to ponder, remember, guess). my favorite line: and so i felt like jelly, like / I had been here before. let's hope i'll get around to writing a proper review sometime.

the people at the residenz verlag, who were kind enough to provide me with a copy of ulrich ladurner's eine nacht in kabul last september already (yes, i have been INTERESTED in this book!), still haven't gotten theirs. but i haven't forgotten about it, and at least i can mention here now that i like the author's dedication to alle, die den krieg nicht hinnehmen.

thank you for remaining patient and have a great 2011!

thien, you will be missed!

photo source

i am so very sad to announce that thien tran died on 16 december 2010 in paris, in what was a rumored suicide. there's also an official statement from his publisher j. frank.

i recommend: mascha kaléko

die klappentexterin asked me for a book recommendation for her readers, and i suggested this. unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available in english translation anywhere (is this really possible?), but there are two of her poems on her EN wikipedia in any case.

i'll be reading @ parlandopark

parlandopark is a new series of events. this is their official newsletter or something. please note that i'll be reading with berlin's poetry kings and queens monika rinck, steffen popp, hendrik jackson, nora bossong, johannes hupp und christian filips. this is a FREE EVENT, there is NO COVER CHARGE.

Parlandopark - Texte Filme Fluchtpunkte

Parlando meint nicht das Geschwätz, das uns täglich begleitet, vielmehr ein dem Sprechgesang ähnliches, schnelles Singen unter genauer Beachtung des Rhythmus. Parlandopark ist unser Tarnname für Revue & Revolte, einen Ort für lyrische Eskapaden und kritische Anwürfe, ein Büro für Kritik, death by Power point, Pudel auf Brühschlitten. Gesucht werden: Begriffe, Texte, Bilder – Fluchtpunkte inmitten der Verödung des Prenzlauer Bergs, der grassierenden Vermarktungen, Verquarkungen und Zurichtungen.

Am 12. Dezember 2010 20:00 Uhr findet die Pilot-Party zu einer zukünftigen Lese- und Debattenreihe statt, die ab dem neuen Jahr einen Ort haben wird:

Der Parlandopark im Soupanova.

Es lesen: Monika Rinck, Steffen Popp, Hendrik Jackson, Annina Luzie Schmid, Nora Bossong, Johannes Hupp und Christian Filips.

Soupanova, Stargarder Straße 24, ab 20 Uhr, Eintritt frei!

 Ab 2011 werden dort JEDEN SONNTAG Adrijana Bohocki, Steffen Popp, Simone Kornappel und Hendrik Jackson offene Abende moderieren

9.1. Pudel auf Brühschlitten Der Lyriker Steffen Popp stellt alte Bücher und schlechte sowie geniale Gedichte vor, danach offene Runde. Steffen Popp und Hendrik Jackson moderieren.

16.1.  Death by Powerpoint Simone Kornappel (Lyrikerin, randnummer-Herausgeberin) stellt Texte und Kunst vor. Voraussichtlicher Gast: Norbert Lange, danach: offene Runde

23.1. Revue & Revolte Adrijana Bohocki (ehem. lauter niemand) lädt zur offenen Runde: Jeder ist eingeladen eigene Texte (evt. mit Kopien), Kurzfilme, Bilder und Fotografien (auf CD) vorzustellen und vom Publikum diskutieren zu lassen. Gern mit Anmeldung per Nachricht an parlandopark@web.de oder über facebook.

30.1. Büro für Kritik Hendrik Jackson (Lyriker, Herausgeber von lyrikkritik.de) quält mit der Kritik "Sodom und Ghomorra" oder lobt in den Himmel mit Kritik "Honigzunge"!

Special guest voraussichtlich: der Pasolini-Übersetzer Christian Filips.

sten nadolny liest in tempelhof

und zwar am 21.11.2010 bei tempelhof liest. auch noch da: sibylle lewitscharoff, thomas pletzinger und andere.

eine kurzgeschichte schreiben

zu meiner überraschung fand ich im neuen missy magazine eine knappe, aber durchaus brauchbare anleitung zum schreiben einer kurzgeschichte. verfasst hat diese karla schmidt, von der ich zwar noch nie gehört habe, die aber laut vita durchaus weiss, was sie da tat. falls jemand also noch den letzten arschtritt für die teilnahme beim nächsten MDR literaturpreis braucht - vielleicht hilft die lektüre ja? einsendeschluss dort ist der 11. januar 2011. äh, der 31. januar, sehe ich gerade.

egorithmus

reisende soll man ich kann dich nicht aufhalten
will dich nicht umkehren gibt es den wert eines
menschen in art aller menschen mit denen er
schläft als die not der realen maschine was ratterst
du denkst du denn dass du verlassener machst als
du selbst je verlassen warst ach wenn du weg
wanderst denk doch ich habe das gehen geübt das 
gelassen ich habe mit abschied in reinform die 
treueste freundschaft geschlossen da musst du schon
mehr leisten grosses wie wär eine spontane wiederkehr? 
ach wird bis dann noch viel schlaf meinen schnarch 
runterrasseln und schnauf aus dem herz emporgehn 
wirst du als reisender nach deiner weltfahrt das hier 
wollen mich wollen alles verklären und wie früher sehn

gerade von unter der glocke gekrochen auch du
aus dem hafenschlamm also dem dreck der den
hafen beendet ich hab dich da aufgeschnappt und
deine fossile seele ins heute gewendet ins morgen
gepaeck umgehoben ins meine verkehrt aeh veraendert
ein gloeckchen aus glas das erhitzt und geblasen mir hast 
also angelegt du... habe seeroeschen rot auf dem
teich gesehn blaettchen und blueten gib acht habe
lieder gesungen nicht lieder gesungen nicht fast.

A N D O S I N A

remember Andosina, that novella i wrote back in 2008? well, it's finally available in german.

wer mag, kann hier für 2 € eine PDF-datei erwerben.

zum inhalt: andorra, london, geissen, lurche, liebe, frauen, männer.

oder in oliver bottinis worten: "Wenn das Leben im vierzehnten Stock nur ein wenig einfacher wäre. Aber da sind die Sehnsucht, die Einsamkeit, und der Traum von einem zweiten Leben in Andorra."

j. k. rowling's plot draft of 'harry potter and the order of the phoenix'

 larger image and source.

can writing schools close market gaps?

DIE ZEIT has an interview with josef haslinger who is both the managing director of the Deutsches Literaturinstitut in Leipzig and also a writer. in that interview he claims that professionally training authors in writing schools like his own is closing a quality gap in german literature. and better yet, he blames us individuals and for-profit literary magazines for not educating younger writers better - in our free time, of course:

"Durch den Niedergang der Gruppen und die Professionalisierung der Zeitschriften, es gibt ja fast keine Autorenzeitschriften mehr, ist eben die Notwendigkeit entstanden, solche Schulen zu haben, in denen Autoren literarische Erfahrungen sammeln können."

i think he purposely ignores economic realities here. people need to go to work these days, unlike in the seventies, when hanging out in smoke filled uni corners was hip. there is not enough governmental funding for literary endeavours. yadda yadda. i'm boring myself with the perpetual sermon of a self-sustaining literary system, no courage to try new things and the ongoing homogenization professionalization of writing styles. he can tell me about his students' striving for originality all he wants - they voluntarily entered an institution whose aim it is to prepare them for a literary market that resorts to celebrating people like helene hegemann for originality. good for her, i guess, that at least she never attended a factory school like that. in any case, a better title for this post would have been "writing schools must close market gaps or else they'll be shut".

alistair noon, ulrich ladurner, and the murakami collective

alistair noon has a reading coming up at this year's poetry hearings kick-off event:

    fri, 24 september, 19:30, direktorenhaus, am krögel 2, 10197 berlin, € 5,00

ulrich ladurner will be reading from his book Eine Nacht in Kabul (residenz verlag):

    wed, 29 september, 19:00, martin-gropius-bau, niederkirchnerstr. 7, 10963 berlin, € ?

i'll write a review of that book, so i'll do my best to attend that one.

and last but not least: some friends of mine started a blog project entitled reading murakami.

no more anonymous comments

i'm sorry to announce that as of now, anonymous comments are no longer possible on WOAW. this is long common on other blogs and down to all the spam i've been receiving lately. please keep participating though. thanks for sharing your thoughts.

strohfeuer

last night i attended my first literary event in forever (after an unsuccessful try on thursday, when we had originally planned to visit the literaturwerkstatt for the klagenfurt-nachlese but spontaneously decided to go for dinner instead): sascha lobo's premiere reading of his novel Strohfeuer. at a whopping 8€, cover charge wasn't cheap for all those who had missed the chance of getting free admission via sascha's twitter, and you know i get very displeased when unhappy with prices. and now comes the but: sascha's reading was one of the most entertaining and diverting i had been to in a long time. in spite of lots of funny car content, which i thought to be the new cat content - or as kathrin put it, cat content for men - and in spite of frequent mentions of hitler and piglets. the latter somewhat reminded me of toni mahoni's recent book Gebratene Störche, but that must have been a coincidence, since toni's book came out only in february of this year and so Sascha couldn't have known, as his should have already been in print at that time. other comparisons included beigbeder's 39,90 - that i remember from working at hugendubel in frankfurt am main, checking out over and over in the fall and winter of 2001. "just a similar topic", in sascha's eyes, and anyways, he couldn't have written his book ten years ago, he first needed some personal distance from the business and bubble and all. and while strohfeuer certainly hasn't reinvented the literary wheel, the excerpts that freshly dyed sascha read were well-written and fun to listen to. rumor has it the first chaper is weak, though, so when at the book store: just skip it. ;)

räumen [spacing]

mein kopf ist ein halbmond
aus schuhen aus schminke
manchmal meinen kleidern
verwaschen ich habe zwei
stapel geladen zwei seelen
die taschen mein kopf ist ein
gläserberg wirklich aus lampen
ikea ist nichts im vergleich 
zu den räumen in mir meinem tisch 
der ein bruder des kaktus ist 
alles okay im kopf hört ihr 
sist alles okay in mir drin weil:
kein abschied wird je gut genug.


[rough translation:

spacing

my head is a half moon
of shoes and of make-up
of clothes sometimes washy
i loaded two piles right two
souls and the bags so my head
is a mountain of glass oh yeah
lamps and ikea has nothing
on what is inside me my table
who's one of my cactus's brothers
i'm fine in my head can you hear
me i'm fine for no parting will
be good enough.