Homage to Paul Celan

Edited by Ilya Kaminsky and G.C.Waldrep

“If there is a country named Celania—as Julia Kristeva once proposed—its holy texts are filled with doubt, and they overcome this doubt almost successfully, with words of wrenching, uncompromised beauty…The book in your hands is not intended to become one of those heavy scholarly tomes that serve as a “proof” of one’s position in the literary/academic hierarchy. Rather, this is a collection of various works, directed at, or inspired by, the words of Paul Celan. What we wanted to make was a living anthology, in which authors observe the poet’s work, read it deeply, penetrate and discuss it, but also play with it, remake it, and attempt to fit it into their own worldviews. A great poet is not someone who speaks in stadiums to a thousand listeners. A great poet is a very private person. In his privacy this poet creates a language in which he is able to speak, privately, to many people at the same time.” Ilya Kaminsky, from the Introduction

Contributors: Jean Valentine, Ilya Kaminsky, Eavan Boland, Anne Carson, Gennady Aygi, Mahmoud Darwish, David Young, Dan Beachy-Quick, Emmanuel Lévinas, Nathanaël, Elizabeth Robinson, Jacques Derrida, Edmond Jabès, Hadara Bar-Nadav, Ales Steger, Joshua Corey, Andrew Joron, Susan Stewart, Edward Hirsch, Jean Daive, Carolyn Forché, Sawako Nakayasu, Cid Corman, Marjorie Perloff, Jerome Rothenberg, John Felstiner, Pierre Joris, Yehuda Amichai, Clayton Eshleman, Fanny Howe, G.C. Waldrep, Paul Celan.

Paperback
Publication Date: Spring 2012
302 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-934851-35-7
USD $19.95 + Shipping