German Poets at SF International Poetry Festival July 27, 2012

SF International Poetry Festival, July 26th to 29th, 2012

The Poetry Festival 2012 features free and open-to-the-public poetry and music throughout the City, including a street party in North Beach, youth events, book signings, translation workshops and more. The festival is the third of its kind.

The landmark event brings talented poets from all around the world to read together with the leaders of San Francisco’s own highly regarded literary community.

The truly international group of poets, from countries including Colombia, Germany, Equador, Italyand Turkey, represent a wide spectrum in the world of poetry, from recognized masters to emerging new talents, who are redefining the art in evolving times.

Two poets and authors from Germany are represented at the SF International Poetry Festival: Joachim Sartorius and Gerd Holzheimer. . Mr. Sartorius will read on July 27 at the SF Public Library. The time and date of Mr. Holzheimer’s reading will be announced soon. Please go to http://sfipf.org/ for more information about schedules.

Joachim Sartorius was born 1946 in Fuerth/Franconia and grew up in Tunis. He worked as a diplomat in New York, Istanbul, Prague and Nicosia. After holding various positions in the field of international cultural policy, he has been head of the Goethe Institute worldwide and then–from 2001 to 2011–Director General of the Berlin Festivals.

He has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and Collegium Budapest and was elected member of the German Academy for Language and Literature in 2002.

His wide ranging publishing projects include translations of the Collected Works of Malcolm Lowry and William Carlos Williams, as well as works by John Ashbery and Wallace Stevens. His own poetry has been collected in seven volumes, the last one being Hôtel des Étrangers (2008). His work has been translated in many languages. Highly regarded too are his international poetry anthologies and his travelogue The Princes´Islands (2009). He was recently awarded the Paul Scheerbart Prize for his translations of Contemporary American Poetry.

Joachim Sartorius at the Poetry Festival: Friday, July 27, 2012
1:45–4:30 p.m.
Main Library, Koret Auditorium
Main poetry readings by Joachim Sartorius, Scott Thompson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Antonieta Villamil, Barbara Paschke, Jane Hirschfield, Dunya Mikhail and Kareem James Abdul-Zeid

Gerd Holzheimer was born 1950 in Munich. Holzheimer studied German Literature, History, Political Science and Philosophy, and he earned his doctorate in Philosophy. Holzheimer worked at a anthroposophical farm. He has lectureships at institutes for Bavarian Literature History and German Philology at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich and he is author for several newspapers and magazines, radio and TV broadcasts. He is the publisher of the magazine “Literatur in Bayern” (Literature of Bavaria).

Location and time for Gerd Holzheimer’s lecture about “The Spirit of California in the German Language Literature” will be announced shortly.

For more information about the festival go to: http://sfipf.org/

Official Website: http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/ver/en9573862v.htm