The Opposite of Seduction

This is the first major anthology of contemporary German-language poetry in English for more than 40 years. As Nicola Thomas says in her Introduction:

"English-language readers have relatively few opportunities to encounter contemporary German-language poetry; the simple purpose of this anthology is to offer one such opportunity, in the form of a selection of recent poems translated from the German for an English-language audience. It has been noted that the last twenty or so years have been a moment of great vitality for the German-language lyric, much of the excitement of which has passed English-speaking countries by, for want of translations, and particularly for want of a selection of translated works gathered in one place. It is our hope that the poems presented here speak largely for themselves: that they offer range and variety, something for (almost) everyone, that they make visible some lines of connection in terms of form, style and theme-and, above all, that they show English-speaking readers a glimpse of the vibrancy of the German-language lyric in the first part of the twenty-first century."

The selection of poets owes much to the tutelary spirits of three senior figures: Elke Erb, Friedrike Mayroecker, and Thomas Kling, without whom the landscape of current writing in German is unthinkable.

Authors featured are Yevgeniy Breyger, Sonja vom Brocke, Alexandru Bulucz, Carolin Callies, Ann Cotten, Ulrike Draesner, Oswald Egger, Elke Erb, Daniel Falb, Christian Filips, Dinçer Güçyeter, Martina Hefter, Jayne-Ann Igel, Hendrik Jackson, Thomas Kling, Dagmara Kraus, Birgit Kreipe, Nadja Küchenmeister, Jan Kuhlbrodt, Georg Less, Friederike Mayroecker, Christoph Meckel, Steffen Popp, Kerstin Preiwuss, Monika Rinck, Ulrike Almut Sandig, Sabine Scho, Daniela Seel, Verena Stauffer, Ulf Stolterfoht, Sebastian Unger, Anja Utler, Peter Waterhouse, and Uljana Wolf.

Translators are Shane Anderson, Kurt Beals, Paul-Henri Campbell, Aimee Chor, Brian Currid, Andrew Duncan, Joshua Daniel Edwin, Christopher Fenwick, Gerald Fiebig, Iain Galbraith, Robert Gillett, Nicholas Grindell, Catherine Hales, Christian Hawkey, Jayashree Hari Joshi, Alexander Kappe, Karen Leeder, Grace Nissan, Caroline Reul, Bradley Schmidt, Jake Schneider, Joel Scott, Sophie Seita, Donna Stonecipher, Nicola Thomas, Amy Visram and Jana Maria Weiss.

Alexander Kappe was born in 1987. Translator of 'the locality principle' by Keith Waldrop (2023), 'The Real Subject: Queries and Conjectures of Jacob Delafon: With Sample Poems' by Keith Waldrop (2025). He is also the author of 'nachreden auf dunkelengel' (2023).

Nicola Thomas (b. 1987) is a translator, poet and academic. She is the author of 'Space, Place and Poetry in English and German 1960-1975' (2018) and essays. Her poems have appeared in various magazines.

Jana Maria Weiss (b. 1992) has translated poems by Edward Dorn, Alice Notley and Eugene Ostashevsky for 'Neue Rundschau', 'Edit' and 'Schreibheft'. Her literary essays have appeared in 'Bildfaeden' and 'Transistor'.