Karin Kiwus: The Face of the World

Orphil Award for Poetry 2014

Karin Kiwus
The Face of the World

poetry
with an epilogue by Mirko Bonné

200pp

Karin Kiwus’ first book of poetry Von beiden Seiten der Gegenwart came out in 1976 and was hailed as a literary milestone. Four editions of the book were published to great acclaim. Her subsequent collections also told stories of their times and yet were absolutely timeless: Angenommen später (1979), Das Chinesische Examen (1992) and Nach dem Leben (2006).

For the first time, DAS GESICHT DER WELT contains all of Karin Kiwus’ poems. Without them contemporary German poetry would be unimaginable - as the recent Orphil Award for Poetry 2014 showed.

Reviews

»When reading Karin Kiwus’ poetry, the verses start to flicker intensely. Writing about her self always becomes a discovery of the world.«
Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»Verses that hide sensitivity behind pretended sobriety, poems full of rough beauty and harsh sensuality.«
Peter Härtling

»Her language is reminiscent of Thomas Bernhard.«
KulturSPIEGEL

»A beautifully designed anthology of Karin Kiwus’ work since the early 70s invites us to travel through the different stages of her writing. We can see how she develops and gains a sharp perspective.«
Der Tagesspiegel

»Karin Kiwus' poems reflect the political and social reality. They are verbally concise and substantially interesting, little works of art that matter beyond. On the one hand they are conventional in a positive sense and on the other modern with traces of the Beat Generation's poetry of the 1950s and 1960s and of Hans Magnus Enzenberger's early poetry.«
Matthias Ehlers, WDR5 Bücher

»Karin Kiwus, perhaps due to her impartiality, is the only poet who has managed to mediate between the insights of the 1970s and the great lyrical tradition. Linking the two in a new tone sets new standards.«
Heinz Ludwig Arnold

»Karin Kiwus is able to capture more reality in one single poem than others in pages of prose.«
Wolfgang Hildesheimer

»Karin Kiwus cleverly connects sensations, reflections and memories.«
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