"etc is poetry". Positions, Paradoxes, Poems

Over the last years, poetry has attracted increasing attention, with some even talking of the rediscovery of a genre. Even though poetry in Germany continues to be regarded as the poor relation of a profit-orientated book market, the poetry scene has a striking vitality and love of experimentation with new poetry festivals being launched and poetry publishers founded. Above all, though, the poets themselves are engaged in critiquing poetic theory. In discussions and readings, the most diverse poetics are presented and debated, raising such questions as: When is a text a poem? How does the poet create verse? Is there a perfect poem? What is the relationship between inspiration and working on a text? What role is played by performance, insight or even the incomprehensible? Peter von Matt opens this event with a lecture on the paradoxes of poetry.

Durs Grünbein, Monika Rinck, Thomas Rosenlöcher, Nora Gomringer, Jan Wagner, Kerstin Hensel, Michael Lentz, Ulf Stolterfoht, Ursula Krechel, Michael Krüger, Marcel Beyer, Volker Braun, F. C. Delius and others join the discussions and readings. The poetry night on Friday evening is accompanied by the Swiss jazz duo Aliéksey Vianna (guitar) and Bodo Maier (trumpet/flugelhorn).