Luke Fischer

Luke Fischer was born in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, to a family with European roots. He lived for a number of years in the US as well as Germany, where he held fellowships and taught at universities in Tübingen and Lüneburg. He received his doctorate in philosophy in 2008 from the University of Sydney, studied creative writing with a focus on poetry from 2010 to 2011, and today is an honorary associate of his alma mater’s philosophy department.

After having his articles and poems published in leading journals and anthologies, his first book of poetry, »Paths of Flight« was declared one of the best books of 2014 by »Weekend Australian Magazine«. The poems in the collection explore the relationship of humans and nature, as well as modes of relating to the world that combine the inner with the outer, or move beyond a dualistic view. In this, they are characteristic of Fischer’s approach, which combines the academic and the artistic. He relates his approach to Novalis’s statement that »the division of poet and thinker is only apparent, and to the disadvantage of both«, a quote that also provides the lead-in to the epilogue of Fischer’s work »The Poet as Phenomenologist: Rilke and the New Poems« (2015). In his non-fiction book, Fischer argues that the way Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetic vision addresses the problem of dualism transcends the boundaries of traditional philosophy. The author discusses the implicit philosophical meaning of poetry on the one hand, while on the other hand advocating for a poetic and interdisciplinary approach to philosophy; his thinking might be called post-philosophical. Also in 2015, Fischer published »The Blue Forest«, a collection of seven bedtime stories (one for each night of the week), aimed at children between six and nine. The work is a radical departure from his usual approach of combining imagination with empirical realities. The non-linear tales are all set in the fantasy world of the Blue Forest, and explore the inherent character of colors through embodying them in the figures of humans and animals. In its review, »The Wall Street Journal« called the stories ideal bedtime stories to »spark the imagination of a child« who is subsiding into dreams of his or her own.

Among the many honors awarded to Fischer’s work are a nomination for the 2012 Newcastle Poetry Prize, as well as first prize in the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize that same year.

Paths of Flight

Black Pepper

North Fitzroy, 2013

Special Section on the Seasons

[Hg. mit David Macauley]

[In: Environment, Space, Place 5/1]

Zeta Books

Bukarest, 2013

The Poet as Phenomenologist

Rilke and the New Poems

Bloomsbury

New York, 2015

The Blue Forest

[Ill: Stephanie Young / Tim Smith]

Lindisfarne Books

Great Barrington, 2015

Goethe and Environmentalism

[Hg. mit Dalia Nassar]

[In: Goethe Yearbook 22]

Camden House

Rochester, NY, 2015

www.lukefischerauthor.com