Among Poets

In his successful collection of memoires and reflections, Rendezvous with Poets, Michael Krüger only got to scratch the surface of his repository of experiences and anecdotes. As a publisher and editor, but also as a poet and translator, he had the privilege of introducing, promoting, and mourning many more authors.

In his new volume, Among Poets, he again proceeds chronologically, as he did in his previous book. Whenever Krüger moves house (usually within the confines of Munich), new poets cross the threshold of Krüger’s abode, where they find a welcoming and attentive ear, and almost always, a friend. Michael Krüger has spent his entire life with poets. He published their books at Hanser and with other publishers, printed them in the magazine Akzente, which he edited for thirty years, and recognised their work with the Petrarca Prize, which he founded together with his friends Nicolas Born, Bazon Brock, Hubert Burda, and Peter Handke. He has hosted countless readings and given hundreds of eulogies, travelled with poets – and time and again, has found himself having to write obituaries for departed friends. In Among Poets, Michael Krüger has collected an impressive selection of texts written over the course of his life as an editor, publisher, poet, and as a friend. Published for our entertainment and edification, the author has also contextualised them from a contemporary perspective.