Poets’ evening # 4: Andreas Altmann

Andreas Altmann

Andreas Altmann (born in 1963 in Hainichen) is a poet living in Berlin. To date he has publish ten books of poetry, most recently Die lichten Lieder der Bäume liegen im Gras und scheinen nur so (2014) and Art der Betrachtung (2012) both from poetenladen Verlag. In 2016 a selection of his poems was published in the Poesiealbum series by Märkischer Verlag. Hans-Dieter Schütt wrote in Neues Deutschland of the collection that his texts seek out viewpoints on water, on land and below changing skies, flourishing with the strength of nature between distances and in shifting locations. Their most noticeable and touching feature is their total lack of cynicism. His prizes include the Christine Lavant Poetry Prize, the Erwin Strittmatter Prize and the Saxon Literature Prize.

Publications (a selection):
Poesiealbum 324. Märkischer Verlag 2016
Die lichten Lieder der Bäume liegen im Gras und scheinen nur so. poetenladen Verlag 2014
Art der Betrachtung. Gedichte aus 20 Jahren. poetenladen Verlag 2012
Das zweite Meer. poetenladen Verlag 2011

Kerstin Becker

Kerstin Becker (born in 1969 in Frankenberg) spent her childhood in Moosheim and Hainichen in Saxony. She has worked variously as a typesetter, a cemetery gardener and an agricultural worker. She now lives in Dresden with her two children and works as a writer and proof-reader. Her texts have appeared in anthologies such as Lyrik im Anthropozän (kookbooks 2016) and in art and literature magazines such as ]trash[pool (7/2016) and Ort der Augen – ODA (Autumn 2016 issue). Her poems have been translated into Czech, Serbian and Arabic for print and radio. She has received many awards and fellowships for her work, most recently the 2015 Working Fellowship of the Office for Culture and Monument Protection in Dresden and the selection of Biestmilch as one of the Poetry Books of the Year by the Literaturhaus Berlin.


Publications:
Biestmilch. Edition Azur 2016
Fasernackte Verse. Fixpoetry Verlag 2012

Prizes:
Munich Poetry Prize, 2nd Prize 2014
Irseer Pegasus, 2nd Prize 2013

Ulrich Koch

Ulrich Koch c_Renate Meyer-Kubik

Ulrich Koch (born in 1966 in Winsen an der Luhe) studied in Freiburg and now lives in Radebeck near Lüneburg. His debut was the poetry book Weiß ich, published in 1995 by Residenz Verlag, followed in 1998 by his second book Auf mir, auf dir. His poems have earned him the Promotion Prize of the Stuttgart Writers’ House in 2007 and the Hugo Ball Promotion Prize in 2000. His poems are notable for their surprising, eye-opening imagery, their idiosyncrasy and independence.
His books have been published by Residenz Verlag, in the Lyrikedition 2000 series and by poetenladen. Selbst in hoher Auflösung is forthcoming in 2017 from Jung und Jung.

Publications:
Uhren zogen mich auf. Gedichte. poetenladen Verlag 2012
Nach Wörteralgen taucht der Dichter. Lyrik aus vier Jahrzehnten (anthology). Residenz Verlag 2004
Auf mir, auf dir. Gedichte. Residenz Verlag 1998
Weiß ich. Gedichte. Residenz Verlag 1995

Birgit Kreipe

Birgit Kreipe c_gezett

Birgit Kreipe (born in 1964 in Hildesheim) creates pictorial spaces in her poems in which fairy tale motifs, archaeological traces, memories and imagination intermingle. Psychological techniques unfold their poetic potential – the woman with the cuckoo hands appears. Small leaves fall out of the light over the tree stumps. Ghosts of ponies show the way. An ancient layer of mortar surprises with its capacity to cuddle and proves to be an ancient proposal for binding theory.
Birgit Kreipe’s poems have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. Awards include the Literature Fellowship of the Berlin Senate in 2016 and the Munich Poetry Prize in 2014.

Publications:
SOMA. Gedichte. kookbooks 2016
wenn ich wind sage seid ihr weg. Fixpoetry-Lesehefte No. 20. Verlag im Proberaum 2016
Schönheitsfarm. Verlagshaus J. Frank Berlin 2012

Jürgen Nendza

Jürgen Nendza (born in 1957 in Essen) lives and works in Aachen. He has published a lot of books of poems, radio features and stories, he works as an editor and is a member of the German PEN. In 2014 design students at the Düsseldorf School of Applied Art produced several poetry clips based on his poems, entitled Zwischenräume Wörter und Bilder, and these were then shown at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin. He was awarded the Meran Poetry Prize for poems from und am Satzende das Weiß, fellowships from the NRW Art Foundation for his volumes Apfel und Amsel and Die Rotation des Kolibris and residential fellowships in Amsterdam.
For Jürgen Nendza the poem is a place of transition in which things are held in limbo and refuse to be understood too quickly, in which the world can be rediscovered a little.

Publications (a selection):
Picknick. poetenladen Verlag 2017
Mikadogeäst. poetenladen Verlag 2015
Apfel und Amsel. poetenladen Verlag 2012

Cathrin Pfeifer

Cathrin Pfeifer (born in 1962 in Berlin) had her first accordion lessons when she was nine. After studying at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy she has been a freelance musician since 1987. Pfeifer’s virtuoso playing and musical openness have made her one of Europe’s foremost ethno, jazz and world music accordionists. She has played around the world with award-winning jazz saxophonist Steve Lacy and has been a tour guest of the East German rock band Keimzeit. As a composer she has written film music, including for the award-winning film Nachtgestalten by Andreas Dresen. Cathrin Pfeifer was awarded the Berlin Senate’s Studio Promotion Prize in 2002 and was nominated for the German Record Prize for her last three CDs.

Album releases (a selection):
Pousse Blue Walz. Band CD. Galileo 2012
Les Siciliens von Liquid Soul (collaboration on CD). 2011
Tough & Tender. Solo CD. Galileo 2008
Waiting for Valentin. Band CD. Beitwo 2005

Max Sessner

Max Sessner c_Michael Baumgartner

Poet Max Sessner (born in 1959 in Fürth) is a bookseller who lived for many years in Nuremberg, Würzburg and Munich. Since 2008 he has worked in the Augsburg City Library. His texts frequently have the appearance on the page of compact, stele-like blocks. In them he deals with simple everyday things. He is an observer of reality who tracks down everything that lies behind things, movements and sentences. His poems have been published in several books as well as in various magazines and in the Jahrbuch der Lyrik anthology.

Publications (a selection):
Jemand hat Elefanten gesehen. Gedichte. Stadtlichter Presse 2015
Langsame Männer. Gedichte. Stadtlichter Presse 2015
Warum gerade heute. Gedichte. Literaturverlag Droschl 2012
Küchen und Züge. Gedichte. Literaturverlag Droschl 2005
Der tschechische Reiter. Gedichte. Verlag Eric van der Wal 2003