We are delighted to announce that

DURS GRÜNBEIN'S
THE VOCATION OF POETRY
has been awarded an
INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARD for Essay/Creative Non-Fiction

"What counts is the one, unattended second, the moment of inspiration that can never be forced and that decides all. It gives the beginning, it sets in motion the production of sense. The poem is the literary form that most purely captures this moment of inception. I might even go so far as to say that poetry is in large part born from the desire to start over as often as possible ...
(Durs Grünbein)

"The ... book of essays and pensées, The Vocation of Poetry, written by Grünbein and published by a small press in the USA called the Upper West Side Philosophers Inc., is my new favourite book ..." baroqueinhackney.wordpress.com

“This extraordinary little volume offers a dazzling personal poetics as well as a sustained engagement with the origins of poetry itself. In tracing an arc from the landfills and forests of an East German childhood to the ‘global airspace of poetry’, it takes in a breathtaking poetic itinerary from the Classics to the present day. Emerging from the heart of the European tradition, every page is packed with insight, wit and linguistic surprises, superbly rendered in Michael Eskin’s supple English. But more than that: this is a volume with a mission. In reckoning with the possibilities of poetry, it sets out to show us a better way of being in the world: ‘a guide to thinking and feeling with precision’. Written by one of the most exciting and thought-provoking writers of the moment, The Vocation of Poetry is essential reading for anyone interested in modern poetry or in modern life.”
Karen J. Leeder, author of "Breaking Boundaries: A New Generation of GDR Poets" and Professor of Literature at the University of Oxford