On episode 189 of The Quarantine Tapes, guest host Naveen Kishore is joined by Durs Grünbein. A writer and poet from Germany, Durs talks to Naveen about his most recent book of poetry, Porcelain: Poem on the Downfall of My City.In Porcelain, Durs writes about Dresden, the city he grew up in. Durs expresses how his childhood felt determined by history, growing up still surrounded by the ruins of the bombing of Dresden years earlier. He and Naveen talk about how his work struggles against that feeling of determination and what it was like to return to poems Durs wrote years ago. They discuss Kurt Vonnegut, Durs’ Oxford Lectures, and his hesitancy to try to reflect in the midst of the pandemic. Durs Grünbein, 1962 born in Dresden, lives in Berlin and Rome. After the decline of the Soviet Empire he started travelling throughout Europe, South Asia and the United States. Since 2005 Professor for Poetics and Aesthetics at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Member of several German Academies and since 2009 member of the Order Pour le mérite for Science and Arts in Germany. He published fifteen collections of poetry, one diary, a book of memories and four books of essays. Also translations of Aischylos, Seneca, Juvenal. His work has been awarded many major German and International literary prizes, including Georg-Büchner-Price 1995, Friedrich-Nietzsche-Price 2004, Friedrich-Hölderlin-Price 2005, Pier-Paolo-Pasolini-Price in Italy 2006, Tomas-Transtömer-Price in Sweden 2012 and Zbigniew-Herbert-Price for International Poetry in Poland 2020. His poetry has been widely acclaimed and translated into several languages. Italian edition, translated by Anna Maria Carpi: »A metà partita«, 1999. »Il primo anno«, 2004. »Della neve«, 2005. »Strofe per dopodomani«, 2011. (Einaudi Editore Torino) English edition, translated by Michael Hofmann: »Ashes for breakfast. Selected Poems«, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2005. »The Bars of Atlantis. Selected Essays« Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2010 + Faber&Faber, London. »Descartes’ Devil. Three Meditations« (transl. by Anthea Bell), »The Vocation of Poetry«, »Mortal Diamond« (transl. by M. Eskin), Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc., New York, 2010, »Porcelain« (transl. by Karen Leeder), Seagull, London, New York, Calcutta, 2020. Forthcoming: »For the dying calfs. Oxford Lectures« (trans. by Karen Leeder), Seagull 2021.Credits:Paul Holdengraber - Co-Creator, Host, OLA DirectorAnthony Audi - Co-Creator, Researcher, OLA DirectorAlejandro Cohen - Co-Creator, Producer, ComposerChristian Pitt - Production Coordinator Erin Cooney - Copy, ProductionDublab Team