The Atria Mystery Bus tour took off April 12th. I think that what made the strongest impression on me was much we all love books. The authors on the tour. The amazing booksellers who hosted us. And the readers who came out to see us.
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With the Best Translated Book Award announcements taking place Friday, May 4th at 6pm at McNally Jackson Books it’s time to highlight all six poetry finalists. Over the course of the week we’ll run short pieces by all of the poetry judges on their list of finalists.
Click here for all past and future posts in this series.
“engulf — enkindle”: by Anja Utler, translated by Kurt Beals
Language: German
Country: Germany
Publisher: Burning Deck Press
Why This Book Should Win: Burning Deck! Rosemarie and Keith Waldrop have done more for “experimental” international poetry in translation than anyone. They deserve to be honored.
Today’s post is from Erica Mena.
engulf — enkindle is a stunning book of poetry. It literally stunned me into absolute submission; it is the book of poetry I’d been wanting to read for years. It’s a small volume, and I read it in one sitting, faster than I normally read poetry, because I couldn’t slow down. The language sunk its hooks into me and pulled me through the book, like rafting down rapids. If some of this sounds violent, that’s no mistake – the book is full of sensual violence, done to the body of language and the body in the poem.
want now: you – drive into me
want to push to the edge, hang, you
haul all my: shale, scrape
it off from: the head, from the shoulders
to rootstock throat gravel: you split me
give me – as if severed – sharp
countours – fangs wolffian ridge
questions too – will i? –
i – take you to me
balances I
The stacatto lines, broken by strange punctuation, expose themselves as duplicitious; the punctuation is superfluous, and yet it’s not. It’s a violation of the line, of the rules of grammar, but it forces a rhythm on the almost unwilling reader. It’s pleasurable and distressing simultaneously, mimetic of the poems. The I in the poem submits to the violence of the you, while exerting her own controlled violence over the reader, and the poem and ultimately her poetic body.
Like most “experimental” texts this work demands more of its reader, a different set of tools and strategies. It is a text that has been splayed wide open, disgorging multiple readings. This extract from the second poem could be read as describing what the poetry itself is doing:
II
– percieve: just at the opencuts: set free
furrow – to stand, sense, to drift now am: pitching to you
through the: fissures [. . .]
[The bracketed ellipsis is mine.] Pay attention to the slippery shifts of meaning across and through the punctuation, the way caesura is inserted into the lines and creates tension with the phrases that follow the colons. Feel the tension that is created by the speeding up and slowing down of the lines, the gaps in meaning and thwarted grammatical expectations (the missing subject for “am” for example).
This is poetry that demands several readings, at least one of which must be aloud. When I teach poetry, I always ask that the students read the poems out loud, as well as to themselves, and if I suspect they have not done it we do it together. Great poetry creates sonic space on the page, and visual space in the voice, and the movement between these opens up new meanings. Traditionally, this happens behind the semantic content of the poem, but Beals’s rendering of Utler’s poetry prioritizes its lyric qualities. In engulf – enkindle, the poems hinge on sound and silence, on rhythm and breaking, with meaning following.
XI
finally, startled from sleep, find:
the larynx deseeded is
hollowed: hands palpate,
it: fumbling, feathered, from
ribcage entwine themselves
deeper into the: reed swallow: light,
gurgling, darkly well, dimly
they: keel towards hulls towards hollows
weave: cavities, gorges of
stalks of fingers of (..)
so to speak: towards the bittern – neting place,
in the singing reed so it’s called – grow
entangled as – flotsam and jetsam – stitched
up to the: glottis rustling
almost trembling i hear you again: say
song you say song – what is: song
Kurt Beals is a genius. I can’t imagine how these translations could have come to be otherwise. He may have been working at an advantage; Germanic languages share many rhythm and sound paterns, two of the most impressive features of this translation. Still, the strangeness of these poems, which demand so much of the reader, must have demaned even more of Beals. To create this kind of complexity in translation is nothing short of stunning, an acheivment compounded by the shifting registers and pacing of the language.
This is an uncompromising work of brilliance on both Utler and Beals’ parts. It’s sharp and sexy, challenging and riviting and absolutely relentless. This is the poetry I’ve been waiting my whole life for.
Yale University Press and the Posen Foundation are teaming to produce the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization.
Barnes & Noble and Microsoft settled their patent litigation dispute, partnering to build a new corner of Barnes & Noble’s business. Microsoft will invest $300 million into a new, unnamed subsidiary that will contain the bookseller’s digital and college businesses.
Microsoft will have an estimated 17.6 percent equity stake in the new company that will develop Barnes & Noble’s work on Nook eReaders and tablets. The new partnership will begin with a Nook application for Windows 8. The new subsidiary will also focus on ways that educational publishers can use Nook Study software to distribute digital materials.
Microsoft president Andy Lees had this statement: “The shift to digital is putting the world’s libraries and newsstands in the palm of every person’s hand, and is the beginning of a journey that will impact how people read, interact with, and enjoy new forms of content … Our complementary assets will accelerate e-reading innovation across a broad range of Windows devices, enabling people to not just read stories, but to be part of them. We’re on the cusp of a revolution in reading.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Books-A-Million executive chairman Clyde B. Anderson and his family have made a bid to acquire all the publicly-held shares of the bookseller.
If the deal is accepted, the release noted that “the Anderson family expects the Company’s management to remain in place following the merger along with the rest of the Company’s valued employees.” The family currently owns 53 percent of the public company stock.
Here’s more from the release: “public shareholders would receive $3.05 per share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 20 percent over the closing price on April 27, 2012, and 13 percent over the average closing price of the Company’s common stock for the past 90 trading days. The proposal values the total equity of the Company at approximately $48.8 million.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Hot on the heels of the explosive Katie Roiphe Newsweek cover story examining women’s sexual fantasies, New York Times bestselling author of the Fifty…
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Readers, writers and publishing professionals can share their thoughts about the Department of Justice’s lawsuit filed against Apple and publishers over eBook prices.
According to The Tunney Act, “members of the public have an opportunity to comment on the proposed settlement before it is accepted by the court.”
If you want to share your thoughts, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management posted information about how to contact the DOJ. Your submissions will be archived–the literary agency also noted that “written comments received from any person to be filed with the court and published in the Federal Register.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Blogger Tiana Smith wrote a post judging American book covers. After comparing the American covers of several popular YA books with their foreign editions, Smith concluded: “American versions are slightly more … generic than some of their counterparts.”
Explore the cover pictures on her site–what do you think? Here’s more from Smith’s post: “Usually us Americans are cool with it if you just throw a girl on the cover. We also tend to go for the slightly more feminine, I’ve found.” Many publishing executives agree that book covers are the number one marketing tool in their arsenal.
Several commenters agreed with Smith (pictured, via). Shadow Watchers author Morgan Shamy pointed out that American book covers tend to be “more commercial.” Bibliophile L.T. Elliot slammed them because she feels they don’t convey enough emotion. Writer DL Hammons observed that “our book covers are more conservative and less likely to take chances.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Happy National Poetry Month! To end the month, we found an audio recording of Allen Ginsberg reading his poem, “What would you do if you lost it?”
This performance took place in February 1973 at New York City’s 92Y.
At the six-minute mark in the recording, fellow beat poet Gregory Corso began to heckle the poet on stage and Ginsberg responded with more poetry. Ginsberg’s dad, Louis, joined the poet on stage.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Author Buzz Bissinger watched his book get yanked off Amazon recently. Byliner removed After Friday Night Lights (a sequel to his bestselling Friday Night Lights) after Amazon dropped the price to zero as a matter of procedure.
Through an Apple and Starbucks promotion, customers could redeem the book for free. To compete with the lowest price available, Amazon dropped its price to zero. Unhappy with this move, Bissinger’s publisher Byliner.com pulled the title.
The company released this statement to The New York Times: “While we greatly value Amazon as a partner in this new category, we need to protect our authors’ interests. As such, we had to remove the title from Amazon until May 1. We’re disappointed that Amazon customers won’t have access to this wonderful story, but we’re pleased that readers still have other options to purchase and enjoy Buzz’s powerful sequel.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
