songs to the great void

On the brink of sleep, walking around in the big city, we encounter Nikolai Gogol and Marianne Faithfull, sock dandies and party girls, the damaged and those left behind, »face down«, »on broadway at the bus stop«, »for ten, fifteen minutes, really«. They are »so tired of the games, even the knives are sick of stabbing«. Because what else is the heart but a »muscular hollow organ« – octopuses have three of them, us people: »a sudden fear of trains«.

With an infallible sense of rhythm and one ear on the dance floor Juliane Liebert listens for »the lonely, the loud, the simple things« in her shimmering poems and writes lines of such tenderness that even the battle rappers find comfort. Because even though the planet »rotates slower and slower« and the Niagara Falls are »turned off at night« – »in the mornings they are turned back on again«.

»Liebert has her own sound and perspective: trained by pop culture, humorous, crisp, to the point, always attentive of human shortcomings ...« Christian Metz, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»The irony, the imagery, the subtext, everything is just right.« Jens Uthoff, taz. die tageszeitung

»... rough and tender at once …, fervent and brittle.« Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

»In paraphrasing Primo Levi, I often think that poems can be life savers. [...] If it is true that poetry can help one endure everything that happens outside of it, Juliane Liebert's volume songs to the great void definitely has this capability.« Sascha Marianna Salzmann, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Liebert‘s sound is stirring, sometimes sharp and sometimes funny.« Björn Hayer, neues deutschland

»Her writing is edgy, gruff, rich in imagery, often odd and almost inscrutable.« Münchner Merkur