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DorisPoklekowski_Frei.jpg)
© Doris Poklekowski
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Michael Krüger
Germany
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Michael Krüger was born
in Wittgendorf in Saxony in 1943. After completing his final secondary
school examinations in Berlin he undertook an apprenticeship as a
publisher and typographer and subsequently went on to study Philosophy
and Literature. In 1968 he became an editor at the Carl Hanser
publishing house. Through his innovative capabilities as a publisher he
was already one of the most prominent personalities of the German
publishing industry by the mid-seventies and it was also during this
time that his first lyric collection »Reginapoly« (1976) appeared. The
first volume of stories »Was tun – eine altmodische Geschichte« (t:
What shall we do – an old-fashioned story) was released in 1984. Since
1986 Michael Krüger has been the director of the Hanser publishing
company and is also head of its fiction department. In addition to this
he shows a special commitment towards poetry. He is also the editor of
the »Akzente« literature magazine as well as a member of the Bavarian
Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the German Academy for Language and
Literature in Darmstadt and the Academy of the Arts in Berlin.
For
his literary work – Krüger has published almost two dozen books with
poems, novels and stories – he has received numerous literature prizes,
including the Peter Huchel Prize (1986) and the Ernst Meister Prize
(1994). Upon being awarded the Peter Huchel Prize for his volume of
poetry »Die Dronte« (1985; t: The dodo), Adolf Muschg's honorary speech
commended the honesty of Krüger's poetry, which deals with the »spaces
between«, the space »between cause and effect, image and meaning,
Oneself and the Other, lies and truth, life and death«. An
oft-recurring motif in his »light and effervescent novels« is the
figure of the failed artist: a manuscript which goes missing or is
destroyed piece by piece by the narrator during the course of the story
(»Das Ende eines Romans« 1990; t: The end of a novel), the manuscript
of a lecture which disappears as it is being translated, a speech which
is not properly prepared and so on. Krüger's figures are loners who
have rejected the world but who through a chance event or a turn of
fate are forced back to life. In the story »Warum Peking? Eine
chinesische Geschichte« (1986; t: Why Beijing? A Chinese Story) the
author succeeds in the creation of an intellectual,
contemplation-plagued character who constantly becomes embroiled in
fresh difficulties. The first-person narrator, through his incessant
analyses and procrastination, is exposed to situations which are
simultaneously funny and exciting. »Der Mann im Turm« (1991; t: The man
in the tower) tells the story of a painter who is taken from the normal
plateau of daily life and placed in a crisis after his meeting with a
female criminal and the subsequent entanglement in a murder. The
incident results in the painter once again learning to »experience« and
in doing so provides him with material for new paintings.
Following
the collections of poetry »Kurz vor dem Gewitter« (2003; t: Shortly
before the storm) and »Vielleicht lebst du weiter im Stein« (2003; t:
Perhaps you'll live on in stone) and the essay collection »Vorworte,
Zwischenbemerkungen, Nachrufe« (2003; t: Forewords, parentheses,
obituaries) Krüger recently published the novel »Die Turiner Komödie«
(2005; t: The Turin comedy), an ironic portrait of Germany's
intellectual elite. The author and publisher lives in Munich.
© internationales literaturfestival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Reginapoly
Heyne
München, 1980
Die Dronte
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 1988
Warum Peking?
dtv
München, 1989
Das Ende des Romans
Residenz
Salzburg, 1990
Der Mann im Turm
Fischer
Frankfurt/Main, 1994
Aus dem Leben eines Erfolgsschriftstellers
Sanssouci
Zürich, 1998
Das falsche Haus
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 2002
Vorworte, Zwischenbemerkungen, Nachrufe
Sanssouci
München, 2003
Kurz vor dem Gewitter
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 2003
Die Turiner Komödie
Suhrkamp
Frankfurt/Main, 2005 |
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