Essays

Publishers, organizers and other multipliers

Back in the 1990s, the feuilletons were already talking about the ‘German poetry wonder’. While the trend had been noticed early on, it was not until the new millennium that it started developing into what, with some justification, can be called the ‘poetry boom’. Indeed, the poetry scene in German is probably more lively and diverse today than ever before, thanks to a combination of vastly different factors. The information provided below should help in gaining a basic understanding of the situation.

Poets, publishers, journals

First of all, the fact that contemporary German poetry enjoys an excellent reputation is explained by the quality of the poetry itself.  A number of poets, belonging to different generations and different schools of aesthetics, are being published in Germany today. For example, a few names are mentioned here:
Paulus Böhmer, Elke Erb, Volker Braun,Gerhard Falkner, Durs Grünbein, Marcel Beyer, Ulrike Draesner,Ulf Stolterfoht, Monika Rinck, Jan Wagner, Andreas Altmann, Ann Cotten,Hendrick Jackson, Thomas Kunst, Daniel Falb, Anja Utler.
That these poets are well known and that their works are widely available is due in no small measure to a heterogeneous publishing landscape. Suhrkamp Verlag and Carl Hanser Verlag are the large, traditional German publishing houses with an extensive list of poetry publications. Other publishing houses to have made an outstanding contribution to poetry in German include: DuMont Buchverlag, Edition Korrespondenzen, Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Schöffling & CO., S. Fischer Verlag, Verlag C.H. Beck, Verlag Das Wunderhorn, among others.

Some of the publishers mentioned above have cut back greatly on poetry, resulting in the emergence of many small publishers with a focus on contemporary poetry: edition AZUR, hochroth Verlag, kookbooks, luxbooks, Verlag Peter Engstler, roughbooks (formerly Urs Engeler Editor), to name a few. The scene is enriched by the presence of numerous literary journals that bring out special issues devoted to poetry as well: Akzente, BELLA triste, die horen, Neue Rundschau, Park, Schreibheft, SINN UND FORM are some of the major journals.

Organizers of literary events and festivals

The various literary events and literature festivals help contemporary poetry gain even more visibility in German-speaking countries.
One of the most well-known institutions and venues for events is the Lyrik Kabinett in Munich, home to the largest library for poetry in Germany.
The Lyrikertreffen Münster, which invites poets for readings and discussions every two years, has been in existence since 1979.
Bremen’s Poetry On The Road offers a stage for modern international poetry and has been one of the country’s most famous festivals since 1999.

Since 2000, the poesiefestivalberlin,with up to 12,000 visitors, is the largest of its kind in Europe. The festival is organized by Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, which is also responsible for creating the VERSschmuggel project and for organizing a monthly programme of poetry-related events. It also organizes open mike, the most important competition for young poets and prose writers writing in German, and the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, which announces a competition every two years for the best poetry film.

Besides Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, there are four more centres for literature in the German capital: Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, the Literaturhaus Berlin, the Literaturforum in the Brecht Houseand LesArt. In addition, there is also an extraordinarily diverse independent scene, which has dedicated itself to the promotion of poetry, among other things: ausland, Berliner Literarische Aktion, Brotfabrik-Berlin, Buchhändlerkeller, Hauser & Tiger, Kabeljau & Dorsch, kookbooks, Lettrétage, Saint George’s English Bookstore, etc.

Poetry on the internet

There are numerous websites in German where poetry is presented and reviewed, and is the subject of controversial discussion.

A small selection is presented below:
www.lyrikline.org is an online portal that has been making the original voices of poets accessible to the poetry community worldwide since 1999. With more than 1,000 authors, with over 9,000 poems (in more than 60 languages and over 13,000 translations), Lyrikline is the largest poetry website on the net.
http://lyrikzeitung.com/, founded in 2001, is an online magazine for poetry that is updated on a daily basis. It posts news poetry news, discussions, short essays, reading logs, columns and a poetry glossary.
www.poetenladen.de/, ‘a virtual space for poetry’, carries short biographies of poets and a selection of texts and reviews.
www.signaturen-magazin.de collects poems in addition to essays on poetry, journals, portraits and reviews.
www.lyrikkritik.de/, founded in 2002, reflects the status of poetry criticism, reviews poetry and offers space for independent debates on the subject of poetry.
www.literaturport.de, an internet platform, claims to have been in existence since 2006 with the aim of supporting and helping writers network with each other, in addition to promoting literature. The site includes an index of authors, a prize and scholarship navigator, as well as a calendar for literary events.
www.planetlyrik.de sees itself as an archival democratization of poetical knowledge. Here too one can find texts, poetological statements and several links to poetry Reviews.