With an Afterword by Philip Casey.
Witty and wise, playful and philosophical, the poems and other short writings of German poet Michael Augustin are instantly recognizable and not easily forgotten. Mickle Makes Muckle, the latest in the Poetry Europe series from Dedalus, gives English language readers their most comprehensive selection of his work to date. Translated into English by the celebrated Indian poet Sujata Bhatt (Augustin's wife), Mickle Makes Muckle is a welcome reminder of poetry's power to surprise and entertain, as well as to move.
"His wry wit and verbal acrobatics, the many bizarre events occuring in his prose pieces and short plays, and the precision and startling comic twists in the last lines of his poems and haiku, place him firmly in the court of the comic muse. In Augustin's world the absurdities and the Gordian knots of existence are neatly unravelled with surprising nimbleness and with laughter."
Poetry Ireland Review
Michael Augustin was born in Lubeck, Germany in 1953. He studied Anglo-Irish literature and Folklore at University College Dublin and the University of Kiel. He now lives in Bremen with his wife, the Indian poet Sujata Bhatt, and their daughter Jenny, and works as a writer and broadcaster with Radio Bremen. The author of many volumes of poetry, mini plays and short prose, he has also published several audiobooks, and translations of his books have appeared in Argentina, Poland, Ireland, England, Italy, and Greece. He himself has translated numerous works into German by authors as diverse as Raymond Carver, Pearse Hutchinson, John B. Keane, Adrian Mitchell and Peter Sheridan. He has read at numberous international literature festivals and is the recipient of the Friedrich-Hebbel-Prize and the Kurt-Magnus-Prize.
Witty and wise, playful and philosophical, the poems and other short writings of German poet Michael Augustin are instantly recognizable and not easily forgotten. Mickle Makes Muckle, the latest in the Poetry Europe series from Dedalus, gives English language readers their most comprehensive selection of his work to date. Translated into English by the celebrated Indian poet Sujata Bhatt (Augustin's wife), Mickle Makes Muckle is a welcome reminder of poetry's power to surprise and entertain, as well as to move.
"His wry wit and verbal acrobatics, the many bizarre events occuring in his prose pieces and short plays, and the precision and startling comic twists in the last lines of his poems and haiku, place him firmly in the court of the comic muse. In Augustin's world the absurdities and the Gordian knots of existence are neatly unravelled with surprising nimbleness and with laughter."
Poetry Ireland Review
Michael Augustin was born in Lubeck, Germany in 1953. He studied Anglo-Irish literature and Folklore at University College Dublin and the University of Kiel. He now lives in Bremen with his wife, the Indian poet Sujata Bhatt, and their daughter Jenny, and works as a writer and broadcaster with Radio Bremen. The author of many volumes of poetry, mini plays and short prose, he has also published several audiobooks, and translations of his books have appeared in Argentina, Poland, Ireland, England, Italy, and Greece. He himself has translated numerous works into German by authors as diverse as Raymond Carver, Pearse Hutchinson, John B. Keane, Adrian Mitchell and Peter Sheridan. He has read at numberous international literature festivals and is the recipient of the Friedrich-Hebbel-Prize and the Kurt-Magnus-Prize.