Impromptus
Impromptus

Author: Gottfried Benn

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780374175375

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An extraordinary collection of poetry and prose from the master of German expressionism The first poem in Gottfried Benn's first book, Morgue (1912)—written in an hour, published in a week, and notorious ever after—with its scandalous closing image of an aster sewn into a corpse by a playful medical student, set Benn on the path to celebrity and notoriety. And indeed, mortality, flowers, and powerful aesthetic collisions typify much of his subsequent work. Over the decades, as Benn suffered the vicissitudes of fate (the death of his mother from cancer; the death of his first wife, Edith; his brief attempt to ingratiate himself with the Nazis, followed by their persecution of him; the suicide of his second wife, Herta), the harsh voice of the poems relented and mellowed. His later poetry—from which Impromptus is chiefly drawn, many of the poems translated into English for the first time—is deeply affecting: it reflects the routines and sorrows and meditations of an intelligent, pessimistic, and experienced man. Written in the low, unupholstered monologue of the poet talking to himself, these works are slender ribbons of speech on the naked edge of song and silence. With this collection of poems and essays—edited and translated by the award-winning poet Michael Hofmann—Benn, at long last, promises to attain the presence and importance in the English-speaking world that he so richly deserves.

Primal Vision
Primal Vision

Author: Gottfried Benn

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 1971

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780811200080

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

These selected writings of Gottfried Benn or primal visions of the 1920s anticipated in certain ways the positions of such writers today as Beckett and Genet, the French antinovelists and the American Beats.

One Lark, One Horse
One Lark, One Horse

Author: Michael Hofmann

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2019-07-16

Total Pages: 91

ISBN-13: 0374720762

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A new collection of poems by Michael Hofmann—his first in twenty years Michael Hofmann, renowned as one of our most brilliant critics and translators, is also regarded as among our most respected poets. Hofmann’s status—he is the author of “one of the definitive bodies of work of the last half-century" (The Times Literary Supplement)—is all the more impressive for his relatively concentrated output. One Lark, One Horse is his fifth collection of poems since his debut in 1983, and his first since Approximately Nowhere in 1999. Tt is also one of the most anticipated gatherings of new work in years. In style, his voice is as unmistakable as ever—sometimes funny, sometimes caustic; world-facing and yet intimate—and this collection shows a bright mind burning fiercely over the European and American imaginations. The poet explores where he finds himself, geographically and in life, treating with wit and compassion such universal themes as aging and memory, place, and the difficult existence of the individual in an ever-bigger and more bestial world. One Lark, One Horse is a remarkable assemblage of work that will delight loyal readers and enchant new ones with Hofmann’s approachable, companionable voice.

The Black Maria
The Black Maria

Author: Aracelis Girmay

Publisher: BOA Editions, Ltd.

Published: 2016-04-18

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 1942683030

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Taking its name from the moon's dark plains, misidentified as seas by early astronomers, The Black Maria investigates African diasporic histories, the consequences of racism within American culture, and the question of human identity. Central to this project is a desire to recognize the lives of Eritrean refugees who have been made invisible by years of immigration crisis, refugee status, exile, and resulting statelessness. The recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award for Poetry, Girmay's newest collection elegizes and celebrates life, while wrestling with the humanistic notion of seeing beyond: seeing violence, seeing grace, and seeing each other better. "to the sea" great storage house, history on which we rode, we touched the brief pulse of your fluttering pages, spelled with salt & life, your rage, your indifference your gentleness washing our feet, all of you going on whether or not we live, to you we bring our carnations yellow & pink, how they float like bright sentences atop your memory's dark hair Aracelis Girmay is the author of two poetry collections, Teeth and Kingdom Animalia, which won the Isabella Gardner Award and was a finalist for the NBCC Award. The recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award, she has received grants and fellowships from the Jerome, Cave Canem, and Watson foundations, as well as Civitella Ranieri and the NEA. She currently teaches at Hampshire College's School for Interdisciplinary Arts and in Drew University's low residency MFA program. Originally from Santa Ana, California, she splits her time between New York and Amherst, Massachusetts.

Where Have You Been?
Where Have You Been?

Author: Michael Hofmann

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2014-12-02

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0374259968

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"A collection of essays on poetry and translation from literary critic Michael Hofmann"--

Plainwater
Plainwater

Author: Anne Carson

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2015-03-18

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1101911271

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The poetry and prose collected in Plainwater are a testament to the extraordinary imagination of Anne Carson, a writer described by Michael Ondaatje as "the most exciting poet writing in English today." Succinct and astonishingly beautiful, these pieces stretch the boundaries of language and literary form, while juxtaposing classical and modern traditions. Carson envisions a present-day interview with a seventh-century BC poet, and offers miniature lectures on topics as varied as orchids and Ovid. She imagines the muse of a fifteenth-century painter attending a phenomenology conference in Italy. She constructs verbal photographs of a series of mysterious towns, and takes us on a pilgrimage in pursuit of the elusive and intimate anthropology of water. Blending the rhythm and vivid metaphor of poetry with the discursive nature of the essay, the writings in Plainwater dazzle us with their invention and enlighten us with their erudition.

The Land of Green Plums
The Land of Green Plums

Author: Herta Müller

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2010-11-23

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0312429940

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The lives of a group of Romanian students under Communism, with its poverty, regimentation and depressing greyness. Life gets no better after graduation, so much so that several commit suicide.