Collected Poems
Rights available for this compilation
»Jürgen Becker’s work traces the temporal structure of individual perception, the simultaneity of non-simultaneity...
»Jürgen Becker’s work traces the temporal structure of individual perception, the simultaneity of non-simultaneity in the close observation of everyday events but also in the movements of memory with impressive consistency. Thus, as if in passing, a chronicle of the Federal Republic of Germany emerges, from the experience of war to reunification to the smartphone age. The poems show us as historical beings, full of inner fractures, always on the brink of the unknown, the unmanageable, the disappearing.« Marion Poschmann
Content:
Schnee
Das Ende der Landschaftsmalerei
Erzähl mir nichts vom Krieg
In der verbleibenden Zeit
Die gemachten Geräusche
Fenster und Stimmen
Odenthals Küste
Gedicht von der wiedervereinigten Landschaft
Das englische Fenster
Foxtrott im Erfurter Stadion
Geräumtes Gelände
Korrespondenzen mit Landschaft
Journal der Wiederholungen
Dorfrand mit Tankstelle
Scheunen im Gelände
Graugänse über Toronto
Die Rückkehr der Gewohnheiten
»Becker is an author who works with recombination [...] For more than half a century, he has succeeded in [...] always sounding fresh and different. He is a DJ of his own material who never bores his audience, a collagist and montage artist who always succeeds in creating concise images of language, thought and perception.« Tobias Lehmkuhl, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»Once more, Becker shows how precisely he treats […] moments and associations.« Nico Bleutge, Süddeutsche Zeitung
»On his 90th birthday, we shouldn’t congratulate him but all those who read and admire him.« Herbert Wiesner, WAMS
»Becker is a master of detail, of close observation. He turns everyday experiences into poetic events.« Martin Oehlen, Frankfurter Rundschau
»It is characteristic of Becker that writing is always related to sensual stimuli. His poems have visual or acoustic triggers, and the concrete writing self is constructed anew in each respective moment.« Helmut Böttiger, taz. die tageszeitung
»In these poems there is room for the entire world.« Thomas Geiger, Berliner Zeitung
»Becker’s poetry forms a kaleidoscope of the fleetingness we live every day.« Hans-Dieter Schütt, neues deutschland
»Becker is an author who works with recombination [...] For more than half a century, he has succeeded in [...] always sounding fresh and different. He is a DJ of his own material who never bores his audience, a collagist and montage artist who always succeeds in creating concise images of language, thought and perception.« Tobias Lehmkuhl, Frankfurter...
Persons
Jürgen Becker
Jürgen Becker was born in Cologne in 1932. After abandoning his studies at university, he began working as a freelance writer and for years he made his living with various jobs. He worked for the broadcasting station WDR and for the publishing houses Rowohlt and Suhrkamp. He was head of the radio drama department of Deutschlandfunk for twenty years, until 1993.
Jürgen Becker received great attention with his first work of prose, Felder (1964), while the two subsequent books Ränder (1968) and Umgebungen (1970) consolidated his reputation as an author of experimental literature. At the same time, he contributed to the emergence of the New Radio Play with his first radio plays. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jürgen Becker focused his attention on...
Jürgen Becker was born in Cologne in 1932. After abandoning his studies at university, he began working as a freelance writer and for years he...
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
The Winter Swimmer
Thekla swims in open waters, even when temperatures are icy. She views it as a full-body cognitive process. In this wintry landscape, she tries to get to explore the depths of her self, and of the...
Domestic rights sales: German Audiobook (Der Diwan)
Stoppage Time
Chorus of the Erinyes
Her husband left the house in a hurry without further explanation. A friend from childhood days turns up unexpectedly, and her usually reserved mother suddenly wields a mysterious power. Mathilda,...
Denmark (Forlaget Klara W.)
The Return of Habits
Nimbus
Nimbus, the dark cloud, is a manifestation of momentum, splendour, vastness, and yet it belongs to the realm of the amorphous, impalpable. It takes effect, it determines the atmosphere, at the...
Spanish world rights (Tresmolins), Italy (Del Vecchio)
The Pine Islands
Gilbert Silvester, a lecturer and researcher on beard fashions in film, is in shock. The previous night he dreamt that his wife was cheating on him. In one sudden, irrational act he leaves her,...
English world rights (Serpent’s Tail), Spanish world rights (Hoja de Lata), Chinese simplex rights (People's Oriental Publishing & Media Co.), Russia (Mann, Ivanov & Ferber), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Estação Liberdade), Portuguese rights (Relogio D'Agua), France (Stock), Italy (Bompiani), Netherlands (Ambo / Anthos), Sweden (Norstedts), Denmark (Forlaget Klara W.), Norway (Cappelen Damm), Czech Republic (Paseka), Bulgaria (Vakon), Lithuania (Gelmes), Turkey (Harfa), Macedonia (Artkonekt), Montenegro (OFK Doo)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (steinbach sprechende bücher)
Grey Geese over Toronto
Borrowed Sceneries
»Borrowed sceneries« are a traditional stylistic element in East Asian garden art. A scenery beyond the gardens, often a mountian or an imposing building, is deliberately included in...
Italy (Del Vecchio)
Moon Gazing on a Moonless Night
This...
Now the Scenery of Back Then
Sun Position
»The sun disintegrated.«
Marion Poschmann’s long-awaited new novel is about Germany from the perspective of the grandchildren of war. A novel about the power of time, about memory and...
Bulgaria (Funtasy)
Seeing Ghosts
From the Bay of Cologne
The Sea in the Radio
English world rights (Seagull)
The Following Pages
Snow in the Ardennes
From the History of Separations
The Missing Rest
Jörn is concerned with those memories that are like little islands in the sea of the past. Linking them together and expanding them is his narrative impulse, whereby, after initially uncertain tactile...
Collected Poems
Non-exclusive selection: English world rights (Black Lawrence Press)
Don't Tell Me About the War
France (Actes Sud)
Edges
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Sweden (Bonniers)
Fields
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: France (Éditions Denoël)