In the morning we are glass / Am morgen sind wir aus glas

Author: Andra Schwarz

Translator: Caroline Wilcox Reul

Publisher: Zephyr Press (2021)

Andra Schwarz’s probing, unpunctuated poems take us into her native Lusatia, a region in Eastern Germany near the Polish and Czech borders that has undergone drastic changes from coal mining, politics, and demographic shifts. Her work addresses loss, nature, displacement, marginalization, and memory from personal and collective perspectives. In the forests and hillsides, she explores her roots in exquisite language, even as she mourns that “no one comes back this way.”

"During the last lockdown in Germany, I read Schwarz’s poetry for the first time. The opportunity to revisit her work in Reul’s English has been a great joy; I can see in each and every verse Reul’s attention to her personal poetics, which culminates in an astounding collection. I cannot wait to read more from these poets!"

–Kraig Davis

 "Andra Schwarz's poetry presents a European back country, an ancient place populated by majestic trees, out of time yet historically formed. Caroline Wilcox Reul's English translations are richaly taut, with a restless onward trajectory. Both women are poetic masters of their respective languages. Their dialogue is a very welcome addition to the Anglophone poetic landscape."

–Chantal Wright