RWW

In a State of Expanded Calm

Collected poems

Edited by Friedmar Apel
480pp

A composed tone dominates Ror Wolf’s poems, although they deal with curious events, accidents and erotic confusions. Parts of bodies protrude into rooms, pistols are drawn and travellers fade away mutely into unknown territories. The lightness of the language and its artful comedy are only two aspects of this world, behind whose description the sceptical gaze of the melancholic is always in evidence.

With the inclusion of unpublished early poems this is the first one-volume collection to bring together all of Ror Wolf’s poetry.

The editor
Friedmar Apel, born 1948, teaches literature at the University of Bielefeld. He is co-editor of the major edition of Goethe’s work (Sämtliche Werke, Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche) and writes regular reviews for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His literary debut, Das Buch Fritze, appeared in 2003; in 2009 he published Nanettes Gedächtnis. He lives in Bielefeld.