Elke Erb © gezett
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Elke Erb (born 1938 in Rheinbach, Voreifel) is, alongside Friederike Mayröcker, one of the most important contemporary German-speaking women poets. In former East Germany she was a major pillar of the literature scene in Prenzlauer Berg. Today she is seen especially by a young generation of poets as an artistic authority figure Erb’s texts are “vital, contemporary and of the moment” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). In them, horizons of possibility are opened up which enable the reader to participate in a “multi-dimensional, ever-ending process of thinking and writing,” (jury statement, Trakl Prize 2012). Erb’s language is elemental and takes in everything around her, its high-resolution sensory reproduction of speaking detail precise down to the very pores, whether looking at the edge of the seam of a verger’s cassock, a deer’s eye seen from the side or the hard, prickly leaves of a holly tree.
Publications (selection):
Kastanienallee, Aufbau Verlag 1987
Winkelzüge oder Nicht vermutete, aufschlußreiche Verhältnisse, Druckhaus Galrev 1991
Mein sein, nicht. Gedichte und andere Tagebuchnotizen, Urs Engeler Editor 1998
Sachverstand, Urs Engeler Editor 2000
die crux, Urs Engeler Editor 2003
Gänsesommer, Urs Engeler Editor 2005
Sonanz. 5-Minuten-Notate, Urs Engeler Editor 2008
Meins, roughbooks 2010
Das Hündle kam weiter auf drein, roughbooks 2013
Sonnenklar, roughbooks 2015
Gedichte und Kommentare, poetenladen 2016
Sonnenklar Meins: Das Hündle kam weiter auf drein, roughbooks 2018