Franz Dodel: Nicht bei Trost (A Bit Crazy)

Franz Dodel

Franz Dodel c_M.F. Schorro

Franz Dodel (born in 1949 in Berne, Switzerland) is a poet and has been working on his endless long haiku poem ‘Nicht bei Trost’ (A Little Bit Crazy) for the last fifteen years. As of June 2016 it covers five books and comprises 32001 lines. Formally the poem obeys the rules of the haiku form, and so Dodel makes a meditative long form out of the shortest meditative form. In terms of content there is just one stipulation – there must be a direct or indirect Proust reference every 500 lines.
Nicht bei Trost is a text that ceaselessly branches out, enabling it playfully to take on board even the smallest of external writing impulses. It is a text that can be opened up at any point, that deviates and strays and wanders off and encourages the reader to do the same. An integral element of the books are the copious illustrations by Serafine Frey. In 2008 Nicht bei Trost was awarded the Austrian State Prize as one of Austria’s most beautiful books. He received the Literature Prize of the Canton of Berne in 2009 and 2011. Dodel lives and works in Boll and Lugnorre.

www.franzdodel.ch

Publications (a selection):
Nicht bei Trost. Sequenzen. Z. 24.001–30.000. Edition Korrespondenzen 2016
Nicht bei Trost. Mikrologien. Z. 18.001–24.000. Edition Korrespondenzen 2014
Nicht bei Trost. Carmen infinitum. Z. 12.001–18.000. Edition Korrespondenzen 2011
Von Tieren. edition taberna kritika 2010
Nicht bei Trost. Haiku, endlos. Z. 6.001–12.000. Edition Korrespondenzen 2008
Nicht bei Trost – a never-ending Haiku. Z. 1–6.000. Edition Haus am Gern 2004
Mein Haus hat keine Wände. Gedichte. Verlag Haus am Gern 2001