France (selection; 17 Muscles)
The title of a book of poetry could not be any more provocative, and still the poet allows no room for doubt: »In general, that which we call reality is greatly overestimated.« Therefore, with all the power of his imagination, in the first half of his book he leads us into the stormy areas of that reality which most people consider the measure of all things.
The discrepancy between reality and dream is visible in the world-historical experience of the collapse of a state,...The title of a book of poetry could not be any more provocative, and still the poet allows no room for doubt: »In general, that which we call reality is greatly overestimated.« Therefore, with all the power of his imagination, in the first half of his book he leads us into the stormy areas of that reality which most people consider the measure of all things.
The discrepancy between reality and dream is visible in the world-historical experience of the collapse of a state, the GDR, and the metamorphoses of that society up through today. Examining the binaries of freedom and solidarity on the one hand, hate and division, Germany and Europe, on the other, in the second half of his book the author develops his idea of resistance to the fetishization of crude reality through imagination. In addition, where do dream and reality lie closer together than in art? In the third section, the author turns to those poets and philosophers whose aesthetics and ideas have sharpened his own. The arc spans from the ancient world to the present, from Ovid to Pascal, from Descartes to Celan.
Durs Grünbein’s latest book is a collection of writings of various genres connected by leitmotifs: essays, reflections, dream fragments, lectures, spoken text and poems. Their very existence is due to the poet’s unique way of working. Using the files he keeps of the key words he employs in his work, he has created a special kind of record, one that proves productive on every page.
»In Grünbein’s third major essay collection the poet and the essayist come together in a new way both spatially and stylistically. Though the texts are testimonies of precise readings, they also originate from the author’s self-exploration.« Bastian Reinert, Der Tagesspiegel
»By relinquishing himself to the informal, all claims of being able to control the world, as science and technology purport it, fade away and thus the way for a casual, open-minded style of writing is paved.« Eberhard Geisler, Frankfurter Rundschau
»Grünbein is versed in cultural history and immensely skilled in exposing what is aesthetically valuable.« Florian Bissig, NZZ am Sonntag
»Grünbein’s ›lost and found‹-texts represent precision, urgency and a high level of politisation. It’s good to know they have been wrested from the files.« Hendrik Werner, Weser-Kurier
»Durs Grünbein’s new volume of essays, From the Dream (Files), is a treasure chest for readers who appreciate literature that is both contemporary and aware of tradition.« Tomas Gärtner, Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten
»Durs Grünbein’s exceptional linguistic virtuosity, already revealed in the title, is delectable.« Lebensart im Norden
»Only few are able to write about literature without […] becoming egocentric. Grünbein writing about poetry sounds itself like a poem.« Veronika Schuchter, Die Furche
»Durs Grünbein effortlessly manages to capture his readers […] with these essays.« SAX Literatur
»In Grünbein’s third major essay collection the poet and the essayist come together in a new way both spatially and stylistically. Though the texts are testimonies of precise readings, they also originate from the author’s self-exploration.« Bastian Reinert, Der Tagesspiegel
»By relinquishing himself to the informal, all claims of being able to control the world, as science and technology purport it, fade away and thus the way for a...
Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, read theatre studies in Berlin, after which he worked as a freelancer writing for various literary magazines. He is one of the most important and internationally influential German poets and essayists and the recipient of numerous prestigious literary prizes. His debut volume of poetry published in 1988 was entitled Grauzone morgens and he went on to publish nearly twenty collections of poetry including Vom Schnee oder Descartes in Deutschland (2003), Der Misanthrop auf Capri (2005), Porzellan. Poem vom Untergang meiner Stadt (2005) and Zündkerzen (2017). He is also the author of a collection of essays and opera librettos. He has translated the tragedies of Aeschylus and Seneca into...
Durs Grünbein, born in Dresden in 1962, read theatre studies in Berlin, after which he worked as a freelancer writing for various literary...
»Now they were all mere playthings in the grasping arms of a state order such as had never existed before. An order that could only be destroyed from the outside by lightning and...
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai People's Publishing House), Italy (Einaudi), Sweden (Ersatz)
English world rights (Seagull)
In his four Lord Weidenfeld Lectures held in Oxford in 2019, poet Durs Grünbein deals with a topic that has occupied his mind ever since the moment he started to perceive his own position...
English world rights (Seagull)
Spark Plugs is a collection of 83 poems in diverse forms consisting of dream fragments, snippets of speech, prose poems, broken sonnets, and sequences that read like accident reports....
Italy (selection; Einaudi)
English world rights (Seagull), Sweden (Ersatz)
What is going on? The Americans are abandoning the moon, leaving the earth’s seemingly dead companion to stragglers. Time to recapitulate: On a Sunday afternoon in Berlin, on the airfield of the disused Tempelhof Airport, poet Durs Grünbein makes a momentuous observation.
What if humanity only ever wanted to return from its adventures in space exploration? Yesterday it was the...Durs Grünbein’s volumes of poetry are known for grasping their subjetcs in larger and larger circles, in their concentric sprawl they seem made for this age of globalisation. His new collection of poetry follows the outline of an exhibition. Works from the last five to eight years are presented in seven sections.
There are images of a journey, excursions into the unknown routine,...
Proceeding on the observation that poetics that create norms and set benchmarks no longer existed, Grünbein traces his poetic career as a »sketch of a personal psychopoetics«.
This...
English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers), Turkey (Ketebe)
The term »metaphor« derives from the Greek metà phérein (»to carry elsewhere«), which, in Antiquity, usually meant »by ship«, so that sea travel itself soon became a metaphor for poetry....
English world rights (FSG), Sweden (Ersatz), Albania (Aleph Klub)
Durs Grünbein visited Japan four times, in pursuit of a long elective affinity for the East that is also reflected in his works. During all of the four journeys he kept a travel journal in the...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Voix de Plumes)
English world rights (Upper West Side Philosophers), Sweden (Ersatz)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
This volume contains 25 essays. It provides a chronological rip cut of Durs Grünbein‘s rich essay writing over the course of more than 15 years – from the early, much-quoted texts...
Italy (Einaudi)
English world rights (Seagull)
The Misanthrope on Capri (a reference to emperor Tiberius) gathers Durs Grünbein’s »histories«, printed in various publications and in his own volumes of poetry – poems that mainly deal...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Poland (Slowo)
France (Greges), Italy (Einaudi), Sweden (Ersatz)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Greece (Keedros)
In the nine essays and speeches collected in this volume, Durs Grünbein circles the prerequisites, conditions and consequences of writing.
»The intimate tries to assert itself through writing,« he says, »paradoxically by exposing itself publicly. But it soon becomes clear that the public is nothing by a particularly impervious protective layer.« Grünbein lets the reader partake in...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi), Hungary (Jelenkor)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (Einaudi)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Petits Matins), Hungary (Jelenkor)
»Stop, wanderer, and read!«, called out the tombstones to the passers-by two thousand years ago. Inscriptions spoke of the pleasures of the deceased, of profession and merit, character...
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Portuguese rights (Angelus Novus), Norway (Bokvennen), Japan (CHUO University Press)
The »silent turmoil« of an elegiac expressionism is what propels Durs Grünbein’s poems forwards, who notes his experience of reality in crass and direct...
Italy (Einaudi); previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Poesia Hidalgo), Hungary (Jelenkor)