![the [blank] garden](https://theblankgarden.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/cropped-lucas-cranach-the-younger-6.png)
Dear Christa, This story seems to have had many lives. It started as a play, first performed in 1930, in Leipzig, as Ritter Nérestan (“Knight Nérestan”), and…… Read more “What you call sin I call the great spirit of love”
Tag: Germany
Christa Winsloe
Christa Winsloe (nee Christa Kate Winsloe; married name Christa Hatvany, Christa von Hatvany, Christa Hatvany-Winsloe; December 23, 1888 – June 10, 1944) was a German sculptor and…… Read more “Christa Winsloe”
The wild muse in me
Five poems by German author Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, from the book The Wild Muse: The Poetry of Annette Von Droste-Hulshoff, edited and translated by Marion Tymms (2013) * Restlessness (Unruhe,…… Read more “The wild muse in me”
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (Anna Elisabeth Franziska Adolphine Wilhelmine Louise Maria, Freiin/Baroness von Droste zu Hülshoff, 10 or 12 January 1797 – 24 May 1848), was a German writer and composer.…… Read more “Annette von Droste-Hülshoff”
We took everything upon ourselves
Dear Sophie, What I found most interesting in the book The White Rose (1952) were the leaflets you produced and distributed, together with your brother and a group…… Read more “We took everything upon ourselves”
Sophie Scholl
Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student, anti-Nazi dissident, and activist. When she was a teenager, she enlisted in the Hitler…… Read more “Sophie Scholl”
I preferred us when my father was away
Dear Birgit, The Mussel Feast, tr. Jamie Bulloch (2013. Original: Das Muschelessen, 1990) is a novella about the collapse of a man’s rule over his family during the course of an…… Read more “I preferred us when my father was away”
Birgit Vanderbeke
Birgit Vanderbeke (1956) is a German writer. Born in the DDR, she moved with her family to West Germany, in 1961. Vanderbeke studied Law, Germanic and Romance languages…… Read more “Birgit Vanderbeke”
Erika Mann
Erika Mann (Erika Julia Hedwig Mann, 1905 – 1969) was a German writer and actress. Born in Munich, she was the eldest daughter of the German novelist Thomas Mann. From…… Read more “Erika Mann”
Memories lie slumbering within us
Dear Winfried, The Rings of Saturn (tr. Michael Hulse, 1998. Original: Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt, 1995) is beautiful, and melancholy, and strange. It is this…… Read more “Memories lie slumbering within us”
W. G. Sebald
W. G. Sebald (Winfried Georg Maximilian Sebald,18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001) was a German writer. He studied German and English literature at the University of Freiburg and…… Read more “W. G. Sebald”
Don’t ever wait for the swallows,
Dear Larissa, Your short story collection Swallow Summer, translated by Lyn Marven (2016. Originally, Schwalbensommer, 2003) made me think of tracks made of air: we might know they…… Read more “Don’t ever wait for the swallows,”
Larissa Boehning
Larissa Boehning (1971) is a German writer. She has a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Cultural Studies, Art History and Philosophy, and studied in Lüneburg and Berlin. She…… Read more “Larissa Boehning”
A liquid pane touched on all sides,
Between by Rosmarie Waldrop I´m not quite at home on either side of the Atlantic I´m not irritated the fish kept me a home makes you forget…… Read more “A liquid pane touched on all sides,”
Rosmarie Waldrop
Rosmarie Waldrop was born in Kitzingen, Germany, in 1935. She emigrated to the United States in 1958. She is a poet, novelist, essayist and co-editor of Burning…… Read more “Rosmarie Waldrop”
I don’t know what my limits are anymore
Dear Irmgard, The eponymous heroine of your novel Gilgi (2013, tr. Geoff Wilkes. Original title: Gilgi, eine von uns, 1931) is a twenty-one-year-old German middle-class girl who lives…… Read more “I don’t know what my limits are anymore”
Irmgard Keun
Irmgard Keun (6 February 1905 – 5 May 1982) was a German writer. In Cologne, Keun attended a Lutheran girls’ school. From 1925 to 1927, she attended an…… Read more “Irmgard Keun”
Everyone was fleeing and everything was temporary
Dear Anna, Do you know this feeling we have when something terrible happens in a dream and we must scream or run, but we find ourselves suddenly…… Read more “Everyone was fleeing and everything was temporary”
