Month: May 2014

2014 Büchner Prize to Jürgen Becker

This year’s Büchner Preis — the major poetry prize in Germany (both in prestige & money: 50.000 Euros) — went to poet,  experimental prosist, & radio-play author Jürgen Becker. Not much is available in English, though The Brooklyn Rail has some translations here. I’m reprinting their bio-note & two poems translated by Okla Elliott below. Jürgen Becker was born in Köln, Germany, in 1932. He is the author of over thirty … Read more 2014 Büchner Prize to Jürgen Becker

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Bernat Manciet’s “Ode to James Dean”

Just out from Mindmade Books. Writes Guy Bennet, the publisher: One of the major Occitan writers of the latter half of the 20th century, Bernat Manciet (1923–2005) was the author of numerous works of poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fiction, and editor (for some thirty years) of the revue Òc. This 1958 poem, a hallucinatory verbal meditation on the death of the American actor, captures the “brutal, sharp, abrasive, wily, loutish, irascible, … Read more Bernat Manciet’s “Ode to James Dean”

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Madeleine Campbell’s “Jetties”

via Arab Literature (in English): ‘Jetties’: Translating Mohammed Dib Through ‘Sound, Gesture, Movement and Sculpture’ by mlynxqualey Madeleine Campbell is the force behind the public engagement project Jetties, designed to stage the poetry of Algerian author Mohammed Dib (1920-2003) in contemporary frames and contexts. Campbell answered a few questions about Dib, translation, which of his books should compete in the World Cup of Lit, and her project: ArabLit: How did Jetties start? … Read more Madeleine Campbell’s “Jetties”

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Europe, A Poem?

Just back from Europe — where the elections for the European Parliament are heating up  — though “heat” may be the wrong image to conjure, or seems only appropriate for the most rightwing fascoid parties who see in these elections their chance to throw their weight around paradoxically exactly on that platform their hyper-nationalistic ideology wants to abolish: the post-nationalist EEC institutions in Strasbourg & Bruxelles. Finally Hungarian, French, English, Italian … Read more Europe, A Poem?

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2 Or 3 Things I know About Him

1) Today, Wednesday 14 May, for those who have German, portrait-interview by Vesna Andonovic in the Luxembourg “paper of record,” the Luxemburger Wort, entitled “The Integral in the Open Field.” E-version not available yet. 2) check out maintenant #94 – pierre joris: An interview with Pierre Joris by SJ Fowler. 3:AM: The primary legacy of your work and your thought to me has been your ability to make clear the axiomatic negative … Read more 2 Or 3 Things I know About Him

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A Morning in Luxembourg

I’m in grey, rainy (so what’s new?) Luxembourg for a vernissage (see this blog, here). Visit family & talk a long walk, then sit at the Place d’Armes (d’Plëss), drink coffee or Rosporter bubbly water, talk to people. Grey rainy morning until on the bandstand of the square where usually the municipal brass band holds forth  for lunch -time concerts, a Qatari traditional orchestra with ouds, various drums, violins & a … Read more A Morning in Luxembourg

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