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Hamburg open air reading
A Poetry Reading!
Reciting my poem "Dissolving" (recorded on my iPad) at reading-performance on 26 March 2022 in the Akademie für Gesprochenes Wort in Stuttgart.
At same reading reciting poem “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” by America’s greatest poet: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314.
Dissolving
In still hours
when no eye perceives,
the matter of the world’s
slowly decomposing.
In atom ticks
the universe clock
creeps toward
its final undoing,
and every blip,
cosmic drop,
carries one of us
closer
to the soundless zero vacuum.
With Musical Accompaniment: World Première of piece by Xu Yi
Publications
Für meine deutschsprachigen Freunde…
Ich wurde gefragt, wo man Texte von mir auf Deutsch lesen könnte. Lockdown-sei-Dank: Zusammen mit meinem Team haben wir einen kleinen Band gezaubert, der sämtliche bisher auf Deutsch erschienenen Kurzgeschichten von mir vereint, darunter auch die Kurzgeschichten, die ich unter meinem Pseudonym Vanessa Araya veröffentlicht habe. Sofort als print in verschiedenen Online-Buchshops erhältlich (z.B., amazon) und in Buchläden bestellbar; bald auch als e-Book. Achtung: Es werden zum Teil traumatische Ereignisse geschildert, die Trigger für Traumatisierten sein könnten.
THE BEAT GOES ON ! It’s out !
The two clips below accompany two poems in the collection Becomings, which is available wherever books are sold.
Available on Amazon USA and many other bookstores, in softcover and as e-book.
book CONSTRUCTED !
With horrid immediacy, the pandemic has shown us the fragile ephemerality of life around the globe—an event that is pushing me to accelerate the publication of old projects. One of these is a book of poems written mostly in the 80s and 90s. While waiting for publication, and with a nod to the wish of a dear friend, I recorded some of the poems. The volume is now available on amazon USA here and otherwise searchable online.
A New BLog (really?)
From where I look, it seems like everyone around me posts blithely to their social media accounts. For me, what to post, when and how seem like a tortuous new game whose arcane rules I haven’t mastered.
Zen Buddhism has played a large role in my life, but in my writings and on my social media nary a mention of it. Nor did it seem appropriate to include remarks on it on any of them. It’s personal, but not something you’d want to throw up on facebook; it’s serious but not about writing or musicology; it’s not a picture, so not instagram-able; and the thoughts are too long for my twitter account, which remains unread anyway.
It’s easy to start a new blog on Blogger, so what the hell. Whether I will come up with posts for it in my already jam-packed minutes of clarity…? Time will tell.
Be all that as it may, it is begun. Cheers.
My First solo Reading 2019
Looking forward to my first solo reading! At Sebastian’s trending gelati salon (he makes his own ice cream, à l’italienne!). Sponsored by the local writers’ association. Yay!
Schwäbischer Literaturpreis 2018
My story “Papyrus and Tatami” (in German) has been honored with the Swabian Literature Prize on the theme of ‘beauty’. The prize is awarded on 27 November in Augsburg. A reading and interview the following day in the Sensemble Theater Augsburg. I am very happy.
First result of new painting course
In January 2018, I began a painting class. Last week, I finished my first work: a text with 6 images and weblinks. For more, click on the picture at right.
Im Januar 2018 habe ich einen Malkurs begonnen. Letzte Woche habe ich meine erste Aufgabe fertig gestellt. Um mehr zu erfahren, klicke auf das Bild links.
Helping others Tell Their Story
Along with millions of others in 2015, I watched as unbearable human waves marched across the Balkan refugee route. Along with millions of others, I decided I had to help. In May 2016, the refugees reached my neighborhood in Germany, and the group of translators I helped organize went to work. That beginning took me on a journey with our new dwellers that continues today. One project, to help refugees find a voice, has borne fruit. Duaa Sheikh Qatana was one of the first refugees to arrive and, at 16, one of the most gifted linguistically. My translator, Dr. Dorothee Leidig, and I helped Duaa shape her story, and editor Artur Nickel selected her story for inclusion in the anthology pictured here. Congratulations, Duaa, and thank you for your inspiration.
"Das Herz hat das Recht, mehr als der Verstand, zu vergessen" ["The Heart, More Than the Intellect, Has the Right to Forget"] von Duaa SHEIKH QATANA in: Von Fluchten und Wiederfluchten, Artur Nickel (Hrsg.). Geest-Verlag, Vechta-Langförden 2017.
ISBN 978-3-86685-631-8
Erste Veröffentlichung !
“Es war so...” in: Kindheit. Literaturpreis des Bezirks Schwaben 2016. Wißner-Verlag. ISBN 978-3957861030
Dann Gleich ein zweiter Preis !
“Der Philosoph und der Kimono” in: Andere Liebe. Ein Kopfkissenbuch. Autorenhaus Verlag. ISBN 978-3866711365