Haus für Poesie

Ana Luísa Amaral (born 1956, Portugal) studied English in Lisbon and wrote a doctoral thesis on Emily Dickinson. She teaches English Literature at the University of Porto.
In her poems she confronts features of the literary tradition that strike her as odd: male dominated poetry and the myths of Western culture. Everyday women's topics often collide with images of biblical origin and Greek myths are retold from a female point of view. Voices from poetry of the past become loud when they relate in her poems not only to her own older poems but also to literary forerunners.
Amaral's debut as a poet was in 1990. Since then she has published seven collections of verse.

Paulo Henriques Britto (born 1951, Brazil) is a translator, poet and essayist, and is Professor of Literature and Translation at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro.
In Britto's poems, a penchant for metalanguage, method and strict literary forms merges with concrete poetry. He is close in the content of his poems to the "Geração Mimeógrafo", a generation of writers who propagate literary spontaneity and the use of everyday situations as subject with everyday language. Like Beat Poetry it is strongly influenced by the rock music of the 60s and 70s, but especially Brazilian 'música popular' and its artists such as Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. The author, who writes no more than four to six poems a year, published his first collection "Liturgia da matéria“ (Liturgy of Material) in 1982. He has published five books of verse and a volume of short stories and won numerous prizes including the Prêmio Portugal Telecom de Literatura Brasileira (2004) and the Prêmio Alceu Amoroso Lima - Poesia (2004).

Ricardo Domeneck (born 1977, Brazil) is a writer, translator, DJ, Spoken Word and video artist. He was a co-founder of the Berlin "Kute Bash" group, which puts on weekly performances and live shows. He is also the editor of the Brazilian poetry magazine "Modo de Usar & Co" and the online magazine "Hilda". Domeneck regularly works with artists in other genres, including dancers, musicians and actors. Both in his writing and his video art he uses his own body and physical experiences as his material and the starting point for his art. His videos are records of his attempts to transform his texts into an event with the aid of his body and his voice. Domeneck's poems have been translated into Spanish, German, English and Catalan.

Richard Pietraß wrote of the poet, novelist and essayist Ulrike Draesner (born 1962, Munich) that she has her “finger on the wounds of modernity”. In 1995 her first book of poems, “gedächtnisschleifen” (memory loops) was published. In it, the author deals exactingly with personal and social histories, construing linguistically shrewd and complex networks. The publications which have appeared since, in poetry and prose, take a testing look at contemporary Germany and its historical development, and make pointed observations on advances in science.

Draesner concluded her studies in German and English Philology and Philosophy in Oxford and Munich, where she received her PhD in 1992 with a study on Eschenbach’s “Parzival”. She has received numerous awards for her works, most recently the Joachim Ringelnatz Prize for poetry. Draesner translates from English and French, including writers such as Gertrude Stein, Hilda Doolittle and Louise Glück. In March of this year her novel “Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt” (Seven Jumps from the End of the Earth) will be published.

Publications (selected)

Gedächtnisschleifen. (Memory Loops) Poems, Luchterhand 1995
Sieben Sprünge vom Rand der Welt (Seven Jumps from the End of the Earth), Luchterhand 2014

Angélica Freitas (b. 1973 in Pelotas, Brazil) is a journalist, editor and poet for whom conventions, whether literary or social, are suspect. In her poems she overcomes the rigid rules of traditional Brazilian poetry, preferring to recall poetry’s roots in oral culture. Poet Ricardo Domeneck places her in a line with Christian Morgenstern, the Dadaist Hans Arp and Gertrude Stein.

Her first solo collection of poetry, rilke shake, was published in 2007 and has been much translated. The English edition, translated by Hilary Kaplan, was published by Phoneme Media in the USA in 2015. Her collection Um útero é do tamanho de um punho, in which she takes a critical and humorous look at lesbian sexuality and challenges constructions of gender, followed in 2013.

Freitas' poems have been published in many journals and magazines around the world, including Granta, Modern Poetry in Translation and The White Review, as well as being included in many anthologies, including Poesia Gay Brasileira, the first compilation featuring poems by Brazilian LGBT writers. In 2012 she also published a graphic novel, Guadalupe, in collaboration with the artist Odyr Bernardi.

Publications (in Portugese):
rilke shake, Cosac Naify, São Paulo 2007

Um útero é do tamanho de um punho, Cosac Naify, São Paulo 2013

Guadalupe (with Odyr Bernardi), Companhia das Letras , São Paulo 2012

Norbert Hummelt (born 1962, Germany) writes mainly poetry and essays and he is a translator. In the five poetry collections he has so far published, he has developed an idiosyncratic poetic idiom seamlessly combining classical metres with spoken language and inner monologue. These poems of concrete images and tonal music are elements in a fragmentary autobiography which at the same time maintain a discreet dialogue with tradition.
Prizes include the Rolf Dieter Brinkmann Prize (1996) and the Mondseer Poetry Prize (1998). In 2007 he received the Niederrheinischer Literature Prize of the City of Krefeld. Norbert Hummelt's teaching engagements have included the German Literature Institute in Leipzig and he is an editor of the journal "Text + Kritik". From 2005 to 2007 he was the editor of the "Lyrikedition 2000" press.

Barbara Köhler (born in Burgstädt, Germany, in 1959) worked after leaving school as a skilled textile production worker in Plauen, and subsequently in a care home for the elderly and as a lighting technician in the Karl Marx Stadt (now Chemnitz) municipal theatre. From 1985 to 1988 she studied at the Johannes R. Becher Institute for Literature in Leipzig. Freelance since 1988, in 1994 she moved to Duisburg, where she still lives, working as a freelance translator (Samuel Beckett, Gertrude Stein) and writer, also creating text installations and multiples and temporary and permanent works for public spaces and private gardens.
Her prizes include the 1996 Clemens Brentano Prize and the 2008 Joachim Ringelnatz Prize. She was also the ‘City Scribe’ in Rheinsburg in 1995 and Writer in Residence at the University of Warwick in 1997. In 2012 Köhler holds the Thomas Kling Lecturership in Poetics at the University of Bonn.
Publications (selection):
Deutsches Roulette. Gedichte 1984-1989. Suhrkamp-Verlag 1991.
Wittgensteins Nichte. Vermischte Schriften, Mixed Media. Suhrkamp 1999.
Niemands Frau. Gesänge zur Odyssee. Suhrkamp 2007.

Nicolai Kobus (born 1968, Germany) studied Musicology, German and Philosophy in Münster and is a freelance writer, literary critic and advertising copywriter.
In his collection "hard cover“ (Ardey Verlag 2006) Kobus sets out on a turbulent journey – with Gottfried Benn and Jimi Hendrix, with Bach and Rilke. Kobus writes poems with a brittle melancholy and great awareness of form. He introduces cool pathos in order to break it, and tips irony over into seriousness.
In addition to numerous stipends, he has been awarded several prizes including the Wolfgang Weyrauch Prize (1999) and the promotion prize for the Ernst Meister Prize (2005).
His latest collection is "shifting stifter. final remix". Poems (Edition Thanhäuser 2007).

Marco Lucchesi (born 1963, Brazil) studied History, Literature and Philosophie. He is a journalist, translator, critic and writer. He also teaches at the Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro.
Lucchesi's poems are drenched with an atmosphere of unease with a highly imagistic use of language. He does not confine himself to any particular content area; subjects are constantly changing in frequently unexpected ways. A hint of irony nonetheless unites everything to a body of work from a single mould.
Lucchesi's poems have been translated into Romanian, Persian, German, Swedish and Arabic. He has received numerous prizes including the Premio Marin Sorescu, the Mérito da União Basileira de Escritores and the Premio Nazionale of the Italian Ministry of Culture for Translation.

Luís Carlos Patraquim (born 1953, Mozambique) is a journalist and author. He writes in the genres of poetry and drama.
Patraquim's poems reflect his life marked by the experience of exile. As a young person he fled to Sweden to escape the war of independence in Mozambique and returned in 1975 after Mozambique had gained independence. In 1986 he left his homeland again, which was continually shaken by crises even after independence, and in which the Marxist Freedom Party had seized power. Since then he has lived in Portugal. While political themes dominate in Patraquim's poetry, he also writes, in addition to poems dealing with the subject of 'exilio melancolico', poems partly inspired by the passion of being in love, which are sometimes openly sexual.
Patraquim was awarded the Prémio Nacional de Poesia, Moçambique in 1995.

Richard Pietraß (born 1946, Germany) worked as a smelting worker and auxiliary nurse before studying Psychology in Berlin. From 1975 be was a poetry reader for the "Verlag Neues Leben" and edited the journal "Temperamente". He has been a freelance writer since 1979. Pietraß's extensive works include poetry, versions and editions of other poets' work. As an important poet in the GDR, he expressed protest in gentle tones. He also shows himself to be a moralist in his poetry when he confronts his written language with neglected everyday speech. Richard Pietraß has received many honours, including the Wilhelm Müller Prize (1999) and the Erwin Strittmatter Prize (2004). His latest publication is the poetry collection "Freigang“ ("Day Pass") (2006, Faber & Faber). His poems have been translated into many languages including French, Dutch, Serbian, Polish, Czech and Slovakian.

Hans Raimund (born 1945, Austria) studied Music, English and German at the University of Vienna. In 1984 he gave up teaching after twelve years and moved to Duino near Trieste, where he lived as a freelance writer until 1997. Since then he has lived in Vienna and in Hochstraß in Burgenland. Hans Raimund is one of Austria's most important contemporary poets.
Kitsch, sentimentality and harmony for harmony's sake, that is, what is all too pleasing, are forein to him, as Ulrich Weinzierl describes Raimund's poetry: "Nevertheless an echo of tradition sounds every now and again, whether it is a standard metaphor like hearts and roses, borrowings from Heine and Hölderlin or the technique of the enjambement mastered with virtuosity." (Weinzierl in the FAZ)
For his translations, Hans Raimund has received the Austrian W. H. Auden Translator Prize (1991) and the Premio Città di Ascoli-Piceno (2002). For his poetry his awards include the big Georg Trakl Prize (1994) and the Anton Wildgans Prize (2004). In 2006 he received the Silver Cross of Merit of the Federal State of Vienna.

Arne Rautenberg (born 1967, Germany) studied Art History and Literature and lives in Kiel, where he works as an author and artist. In his works, which are full of humour, he experiments with rhythms and styles, intonations and levels of language in poetic play with the forms of perception.
Rautenberg published his first collection of poetry, "Neondämmerlicht" (Neon Twilight) in 1996. His literary oeuvre covers not only poetry but also experimental texts and his novel "Der Sperrmüllkönig" (The Trash King) (2002). Since 2006 he has also been teaching at the Muthesius School of Art in Kiel and he is a freelance critic and feature writer. Rautenberg's many awards include the Poetry Prize of the Graz Academy (2001) and the Random House Prize for Satirical Literature (2002).

Monika Rinck (born in Zweibrücken in 1969) is a poet, song lyric writer, essayist and translator and lives in Berlin. Her work uniquely combines laconic expression with opulence; it is philosophical and sensual, comic and serious at the same time. Rinck collaborates with other poets and with artists and musicians, including the composers Franz Tröger and Bo Wiget as well as poets Ann Cotten and Sabine Scho (as the Rotten Kinck Schow). Together with poet Orsolya Kalász she translates from Hungarian (e.g. the poets Márió Z. Nemes and István Kemény). Rinck has been awarded many prizes and honours for her work, most recently the Peter Huchel Prize for her collection Honigprotokolle, the Heimrad Bäcker Prize and the Kleist Prize. Monika Rinck is a member of P.E.N. Club, the poetry collective ‘Lyrikknappschaft Schöneberg’, the Academy of the Arts Berlin and the German Academy for Language and Poetry.
 
Publications (selection):
Risiko und Idiotie. Streitschriften. kookbooks, Berlin 2015
Hasenhass. Eine Fibel in 47 Bildern. Verlag Peter Engstler, Ostheim/Rhön 2013
Honigprotokolle. kookbooks, Berlin 2012
Helle Verwirrung/Rincks Ding- und Tierleben. Gedichte. Texte unter
Zeichnungen. kookbooks, Berlin 2009
zum fernbleiben der umarmung. Gedichte. kookbooks, Berlin 2007
Ah, das Love-Ding. Essays. kookbooks, Berlin 2006
Verzückte Distanzen. Gedichte. Zu Klampen, Springe 2004

In English:
to refrain from embracing, translated by Nicholas Grindell, Burning Deck, Providence R.I, 2007

Sabine Scho studied German and Philosophy in Münster, Germany. She currently lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil, and in Berlin, Germany. Her first collection of poetry entitled “Thomas Kling entdeckt Sabine Scho” (EN: Thomas Kling discovers Sabine Scho) was published in 2001. It was reissued by kookbooks as “Album” in 2008. The collection entitled “farben” (EN: colours) followed in the autumn of 2008. In her work, she coolly dissects images and values in order to present them from a different angle. “A poetic historian of mentality whose brittle and eccentric writing is unique in this day and age.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) Thomas Kling once said that he knew of no one more successful in the “(resentment- and didactics-free, i.e. poetic) description of the battle of the sexes (here the term is valid) in its most wretched form as the 1970s-born Sabine Scho.” Among other accolades, Scho has won the Leonce and Lena Prize (2001) and the promotion prize of the Ernst Meister Prize (2001).
Sabine Scho at ZVAB

Pedro Sena-Lino (born 1977, Portugal) studied Portuguese Language and Literature in Lisbon and completed his studies with a dissertation on José Régio. He teaches Creative Writing and has written two books on the subject. He was also a literary critic for the Portuguese daily newspaper "Publico" until 2007. Since October 2007 he has been a research fellow in a research project on Portuguese women writers.
To many, Sena-Lino is the voice of the new generation of Portuguese writers. He has published seven collections of poetry. His poems have appeared in Anthologies in Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Croatia, Bulgaria and France.
As well as poetry, he published a volume of short stories, "Museu de História Sobrenatural", in 2007. His first novel will be published in January 2009.

Ana Paula Tavares (born 1952, Angola) studied History and worked as a teacher. She has been living in Portugal since the late 1970s, gaining a doctorate there in African History.
She is involved in several environmental organisations in São Paolo and New York, is a member of the Angolan Writers' Association and the Angolan section of UNESCO. She currently works as a historian in Lisbon.
Tavares' poems deal with Angolan tradition and languages. love and war, and especially with the role of women in African society. Tavares uses a conspicuously unsentimental language, which impresses with its precision and unexpected leaps of thought.
Her work is influenced by the works of the Angolan poets David Mestre, Arlindo Barbeitos and Rui Duarte de Carvalho, and the Brazilian poets Bandeira and Drummond. Tavares' prizes include the Premio Mario Antonio, the most important prize for Portuguese-language writers from Africa.

Tony Tcheka (born1951, Guinea-Bissau), who has been working as a journalist since 1975, is one of his country's best-known poets. His poems appeared in several anthologies of poems from Guinea-Bissau before he published his debut, "Noites de insonia na terra adormecida"in 1996. The main theme in his poetry as well as in his work as a journalist is a critical confrontation with history, politics and society in his country.
Tony Tcheka has been a committed member of various international NGOs, including the National Commission of UNESCO in Guinea-Bissau, and he was the head of "RDN“ – Radio Difusão Nacional of Guinea-Bissau. Today Tcheka works mainly as a journalist for the RTP África TV channel in Portugal and for the magazine "Revista Lusografias". Tony Tcheka is also the publisher of the magazine "África Lusófona" in Lisbon and a BBC correspondent with "Voz da América".

Paulo Teixeira (born 1962, Mozambique) is one of the most important Portuguese poets of the generation that emerged in the Eighties and became established in the Nineties. In a frequently elegiac form, these poets evoke the 'Decline of the West' and regard European civilisation as one which is marked mainly by war and destruction. Teixeira's poetry, too, takes this critical view of our age and Europe, combined with a look back at its literary and cultural tradition.
Teixeira's collection "Inventário e Despedida“ (Inventory and Departure) won three literary prizes, the Poetry Prize of the Portuguses PEN Club, the Eça de Queirós of the City of Lisbon and the big Inapa Prize. Translations of his poems are in anthologies and magazines in eleven languages.