HAUS FÜR POESIE

Moni Stănilă (born 1978 in Tomești, Romania) is a poet and trained theologian—in her books, writing and prayer go hand in hand. There’s a third element to her work that might come as a surprise at first: her deep enthusiasm for soccer. This is particularly evident in a book that has now been published in a German translation by Alexandru Bulucz, Metallische Igel (Metallic Hedgehogs, edition.fotoTAPETA 2024). At one point, she writes, “soccer is an anchor,” and elsewhere she suggests, “two things have filled me with awe: what / Dostoevsky does with prose / And Michael Neuer in his penalty box.”

The poems in this collection were written over a span of eight years. The titular “hedgehogs” are a reference to “Czech hedgehogs,” a military barrier that descends from the historical cheval de frise. The book is divided into two sections: the “diary of a microbiști” (a kind of private chronicle by a soccer fan) is juxtaposed with a diary of the frontline. The latter refers to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, which Stănilă witnessed from Moldova, her adopted home, which borders Ukraine.

The first part of the collection looks at soccer in a wonderfully concrete manner: “For some people, life puts the ball / right on the chalk mark, nothing more, and then you have to be precise…” And: “When you’ve got the stands at your back and are silent, that’s / like standing still, waiting to be kissed by someone.”

The tone and subject matter become darker in the second part. The war draws nearer, yet in a bold artistic volte, football remains the central metaphor: “FIFA gave Putin a World Cup / as a gift, a quarter-final, / a spectacle, money. Gérard Depardieu / embraced the devil. Steven Seagal.”

Metallische Igel is on the 2025 list of recommended poetry books in Germany and was endorsed by poet Kerstin Preiwuß, who wrote in her citation: “The poems are neither prophetic nor elegiac, they instead remain relentlessly present. They are resonant without griping, at the same time, irreverent and brutally funny.”

Combo ticket for the afternoon: Combo ticket
The event will be interpreted into Romanian and German. Kindly supported by ECHOO Conference Interpreting.
Kindly supported by: Rumänisches Kulturinstitut, Sportmuseum Berlin.
The event takes place at Clubraum.