Michael Lentz | © Viktor Pattyn
“In the beginning it was / to start with”. Thus commences one of the poems in Michael Lentz’s new book Chora, in which sound and visual esthetics merge in a portentous, multi-layered blend. The echo of the opening verses of the book of Genesis is, of course, intentional. The whole volume indeed revolves around beginnings and endings: the whole of existence; a dead bird taking shape in the form of contours; song and symbolism – all in a scintillating multiplicity of lyrical forms, from anagrams to tercets to prayers.
Christian Metz has dubbed Lentz a “knowledge poet”, an “alphabetical acrobat”. As both sound poet and lyrical theorist of outstanding intellectual finesse, as a poet of love and a virtuoso performer, he routinely keeps his audience on the edge of their seats.
Born in Düren in 1964, Lentz studed German, history and philosphy and today teaches literary writing at the Deutsches Literaturinstitut (German Institute of Literature) in Leipzig. His works have already won him the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, the Houses of Literature Prize and the Walter Hasenclever Literature Prize.
Christian Metz is a literary critic, Professor of Modern German Literature at RWTH Aachen University and the author of Poetisch denken (Poetic Thinking), a book on contemporary German poetry that has long since become a standard reference work.
Tickets: 8 euros/6 euros (discount rate). Lyrik Kabinett members receive free admission. For more information, please visit the Lyrik Kabinett website. The event will be held in German.
LMU and the Lyrik Kabinett have worked together very intensively for over 30 years. The more than 70,000 works subsumed under the Lyrik Kabinett Foundation are available via OPAC to everyone related to LMU. Numerous events provide a fascinating insight into the current poetic landscape.