Nora Gomringer [Switzerland]

 

© Judith Kinitz

© Judith Kinitz

Guest 2017

Bibliography

Silbentrennung

Grupello

Düsseldorf, 2002

Klimaforschung

Voland & Quist

Dresden/Leipzig, 2008

Nachrichten aus der Luft

Voland & Quist

Dresden/Leipzig, 2010

Monster Poems

[Ill: Reimar Limmer]

Voland & Quist

Dresden/Leipzig, 2013

Morbus

[Ill: Reimar Limmer]

Voland & Quist

Dresden/Leipzig, 2015

Peng Peng Peng

[CD mit Philipp Scholz]

Voland & Quist

Dresden/Leipzig, 2017

MODEN

Voland & Quist

Dresden/Leipzig, 2017

nora-gomringer.de

Biography

The Swiss-German poet and performer Nora Gomringer was born in Neunkirchen/Saar in 1980 to a German studies specialist mother and an experimental poet father. She grew up in Wurlitz bei Hof before moving to Bamberg in 1996. After graduating high school in Lititz, Pennsylvania in 1998, she completed her Abitur in Bamberg in 2000. She studied English, German and art history at Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg until 2006.

Gomringer self-published her first book of poetry and caught the attention of Düsseldorf-based Grupello-Verlag, which issued her debut »Silbentrennung« (tr. Hyphenation) in 2002. As the title suggests, Gomringer uses language on a meta-communicative level, sifting the phonetic imagery out of her words in short lines: »Wortgebirge / Abtragen / Den so entstehenden Sand / Schlucken // Die Worte im Innern / Zu Dünen aufwerfen« (tr. Word mountains / Carry away / The resulting sand / Swallow // The words on the inside / Raise into dunes). Her subjects include the emotional aspects of relationships and the joy and pain of separation. Her debut was followed by further volumes of poetry, including »Klimaforschung« (2008; tr. Climate research), »Nachrichten aus der Luft« (2010; tr. News from the sky), »Monster Poems« (2013) and »Morbus« (2015). Critics praised her eloquence, the speed and urgency of her texts, and her combination of artificial and spoken-word poetry. Most of her published work comes with an audio CD read by Gomringer herself, and some of her poetry has artistic illustrations. »Monster Poems« even features a video installation. On stage, Gomringer works with musicians, including Günter Baby Sommer, Scratch Dee, Michael Stauffer, the Wortart Ensemble and Philipp Scholz. In 2001, she became a leading representative of the German-language poetry slam scene, co-founded the Bamberg Poetry Slam, and won the 2005 championship in Leipzig together with Fiva and Mia Pittroff in the team slam category. In 2006, she took leave of poetry slam but applied what she had learned in the spoken-word scene to her ongoing work.

In 2015, Gomringer’s text »Recherche« (tr. Research) earned her the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis. She also received the Nikolaus-Lenau-Lyrikpreis, the Jacob-Grimm-Preis Deutsche Sprache and the Joachim-Ringelnatz-Preis. She is a lecturer in poetry in Landau, Sheffield and Kiel. In 2010, she became director of the Villa Concordia artists’ center. She wrote the libretto for Helga Pogatschar’s opera project »Drei fliegende Minuten« (tr. Three flying minutes), which had its world premiere in Basel in 2013. That same year, she could be heard on Bavarian radio in the three-part radio essay series »Nora Gomringer sieht fern« (tr. Nora Gomringer watches TV). She has made poetry films called »Lyrischer Zwischenruf« (tr. Lyrical interjection) for 3sat with Judith Kinitz and Maren Adler since 2015. Gomringer lives in Bamberg.