Born in Hamburg in 1971, Jan Wagner studied English in Hamburg, Dublin and Berlin, where he has lived since 1995. He has published six volumes of poetry, including his most recent collection ‘Regentonnenvariationen’ (Rain Barrel Variations, 2014). A translator and essayist, he is also co-editor of two influential anthologies of young German language poetry Lyrik von Jetzt (Poetry of Now, 2003) and Lyrik von Jetzt 2 (Poetry of Now 2, 2008), and has received numerous awards, including the Mondsee Poetry Award (2004), the Ernst Meister Prize for Poetry (2005), the Wilhelm Lehmann Prize (2009) and the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize (2011).
“I love to write most: in a simultaneous state of presence and absence… When silence fills the room and darkness lurks outside the window.” Jan Wagner, The Missing Slate’s Poet of the Month, interviewed by Audrey Ryback.
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Original German text of Audrey Ryback’s interview with Jan Wagner.
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“the first dry leaves drift to the ground/ as if somewhere a library were on fire.” Poem of the Week (September 16), by Jan Wagner. Translated from German by Iain Galbraith.
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