Free Fall

Karl Krolow (1915–1999) was one of the giants of German literature in the twentieth century. He published several thousand poems, including volumes of Selected Poems by the decade, as well as distinctive prose, translations, and incisive criticism. President of the German Academy of Language & Literature (1972– 75), he fostered the career of many a younger writer and championed the cause of persecuted writers, such as Paul Celan and Nelly Sachs. His many prizes and awards include the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize (1988).

Stuart Friebert has published twelve books of poems, among them Funeral Pie, which co-won the Four Way Book Award. He has two volumes of translations forthcoming: The Stomach of the Soul: Selected Poems of Sylva Fischerova (Calypso Editions) and Puppets in the Wind: Selected Poems of Karl Krolow (Bitter Oleander Pess), and eight volumes of translations previously published, most recently joint translations with Sylva Fischerova of her selected poems, entitled The Swing in the Middle of Chaos (Bloodaxe, 2010). He has published two volumes of selected Karl Krolow poems and recently completed a third. He founded the writing program at Oberlin College and co-founded FIELD and the Oberlin College Press. Recent poems and translations have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Hanging Loose, AGNI, Pleiades, and elsewhere. (updated 10/2013)