poetry night with ana luísa amaral, athena farrokhzad, olga ravn, arthur sze, charlotte van den broeck

Since her debut in 1990, Ana Luísa Amaral has published numerous volumes of poetry. Most recently, the volume »Was ist ein Name« [Eng. »What’s In a Name«, 2017; translated into German by Michael Kegler and Piero Salabè] was published to great acclaim in German. In 2021, she won the Premio Reina Sofía de Poesía, the most important prize for
poetry in the Ibero-­Romance language category. To kick off this year’s Poetry Night, Amaral will talk about the transformation process that her poetry undergoes when translated into other languages.

Athena Farrokhzad’s haunting long poem »White Blight« [translated by Jennifer Hayashida] is dedicated to the theme of the emigration experience. She alternately lends her voice to the individual members of her family, whose statements illustrate different perspectives on the new place of life and the memory of her native Iran. The daughter of the family, however, remains silent, linking the various voices into a polyphonic work of disorientation and speechlessness.

Olga Ravn is one of Denmark’s most popular authors. Her poetry debut in 2009 was followed by three further volumes of poetry. The minimalist, unrelenting texts in the volume »den hvide rose« [tr: Becoming a Rose; translated into German by Alexander Sitzmann] repeat the classic image of the rose in a meditative rhythm and address love, illness, loss, and heartbreaking loneliness. The book was nominated for the Danish Readers’ Book Prize.

Charlotte Van den Broeck, who opened the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair with Arnon Grunberg, was awarded the Herman de Coninck Debut Prize for her poems, which have been translated into several languages. Her volume »Chameleon, Nachtroe« [translated into German by Stefan Wieczorek] has the theme of failed love running through it as the common thread of many »texts that express the endless feeling of travel, of nocturnal highways and hotel rooms, a world of breathlessness.« [Leipziger Zeitung]

Winner of the American Book Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, and the National Book Award for Poetry, Arthur Sze is the author of eleven volumes of poetry and also a celebrated translator of Chinese. His texts show a condensed lyrical expression of that which often lies far apart in time and space. He reveals the ephemeral in nature and traces phenomena whose meaning and beauty sometimes go unnoticed. Arthur Sze will be joining via live stream.

Event language(s): English/ diverse