(East) German author Volker Braun turned 75 on 7 May.
Several of his works are under review at the complete review, but there's almost nothing of his available in English: What's Really Wanted is about the extent of the book-publications to date -- but fortunately that's about to change as Seagull (who else ?) is bringing out a volume of 'Selected Poems', Rubble Flora, translated by David Constantine and Karen Leeder, this fall; see the (Seagull-distributor) University of Chicago Press publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Among his books under review at the complete review is Werktage I (1977-1989) -- and his Werktage 2 (1990-2008) just came out -- see the Suhrkamp foreign rights page ("Rights available" ! (as also still for volume one, sigh ...)) and I hope to get to cover this soon.
Also impressive-looking: Lehmstedt Verlag have brought out a tribute-volume in honor of Braun for his birthday, Was immer wird, es wühlt im Hier und Jetzt -- see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.de -- which includes pieces (texts and art-works) from the likes of Wolf Biermann, F.C.Delius, Durs Grünbein, Christoph Hein, Friederike Mayröcker, Ingo Schulze, and Uwe Timm, among others; see, for example, the (German) overview in the Leipziger Internet Zeitung by Ralf Julke.
Several of his works are under review at the complete review, but there's almost nothing of his available in English: What's Really Wanted is about the extent of the book-publications to date -- but fortunately that's about to change as Seagull (who else ?) is bringing out a volume of 'Selected Poems', Rubble Flora, translated by David Constantine and Karen Leeder, this fall; see the (Seagull-distributor) University of Chicago Press publicity page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Among his books under review at the complete review is Werktage I (1977-1989) -- and his Werktage 2 (1990-2008) just came out -- see the Suhrkamp foreign rights page ("Rights available" ! (as also still for volume one, sigh ...)) and I hope to get to cover this soon.
Also impressive-looking: Lehmstedt Verlag have brought out a tribute-volume in honor of Braun for his birthday, Was immer wird, es wühlt im Hier und Jetzt -- see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.de -- which includes pieces (texts and art-works) from the likes of Wolf Biermann, F.C.Delius, Durs Grünbein, Christoph Hein, Friederike Mayröcker, Ingo Schulze, and Uwe Timm, among others; see, for example, the (German) overview in the Leipziger Internet Zeitung by Ralf Julke.