summer foam’s harvest

  • New poems by the internationally successful author of You’re Not Going to Die

Kathrin Schmidt’s new poems are about aging, leave-takings, and transience. And yet they are the opposite of still lifes because they always speak “from life.” Nothing stands still, everything moves – driven by a great love of life, wisdom, and sharp humor.

The poems talk about and reflect on the body and its metamorphoses, the decay of nature all around, what family means. About everything that remains and about the things that disappear. Rural areas often appear alongside urban settings - in the countryside, in the village, or at least in the garden. The vocabulary draws on this natural world, which, however, is hardly a static idyll. Kathrin Schmidt creates poems that embrace both: nature and the city, life and death, sensual impression and abstract analysis.

“A poetic art that is able to visualize the upheavals of contemporary history with great linguistic virtuosity.” – NZZ

Rights to Kathrin Schmidt’s books have been sold to Belarus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain.

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  • Publisher: Kiepenheuer&Witsch
  • Release: 05.11.2020
  • ISBN: 978-3-462-05390-6
  • 112 Pages
  • Author: Kathrin Schmidt
Buchcover von summer foam’s harvest: gedichte
Kathrin Schmidt summer foam’s harvest
Portrait von Kathrin Schmidt
© Imrana Kapetanovic
Kathrin Schmidt

Kathrin Schmidt , born in Gotha in 1958, has worked as a psychologist, editor and social scientist. She has received numerous awards for her literary work, including the 1993 Leonce and Lena Prize and the Christine Lavant Prize and the German Book Prize for her novel Du stirbst nicht (“You’re Not Going to Die”). Other works by her include the novel Die Gunnar-Lennefsen-Expedition, the collection of poems Blinde Bienen. Gedichte (“Blind Bees”), the short story collection Fitino. Schwamm drüber (“Let Bygones be Bygones”) and the novel Kapoks Schwestern (“Kapoks Sisters”).
Rights to her books have been sold to Belarus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain.