Dánnerstag 2022

Semier Insayif is an Austrian writer and lives in Vienna as a writer of poetry and prose texts. He has been invited to many readings and performances in Austria and abroad and has been awarded numerous awards and grants. He has contributed to radio programmes and published in various literary magazines, art catalogues, and anthologies. He contributes ich dir to the Dánnerstag project.

Hilde Domin (1909 - 2006) was a German lyricist and poet from Cologne who had to go into exile during the Nazi period, spending 14 years in the Dominican Republic. She returned to Heidelberg in 1954 and was awarded with a myriad of literary prizes including the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Literary Prize (1995) and the Jakob-Wassermann Literary Prize (1999). Her poem "Bittersüßer Mandelbaum" (1962) was translated into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock and into Englisch by Hans-Christian Oeser and is read here by Gisela Holfter and Sorcha de Brún for Dánnerstag.

Kerstin Hensel is a particularly versatile German writer, having published numerous books in a variety of genres including novels, short stories, poetry and plays. Among the many literary prizes she was awarded are the Anna Seghers Prize (1987), the Leonce-und-Lena-Preis (1991) and the Lessing Prize (1997). Since 2001 she is professor at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. The poem “Meine Welt” which she has contributed to Dánnerstag was first published in the poetry volume Alle Wetter (Munich: Sammlung Luchterhand 2008). Translated into English and Irish by UL students Saoirse Jenkinson, Ailish Finan, Sarah Daly, Katie Keogh, Kate Delaney, Jennifer Ruffini, Caoimhe O’Sullivan.

Elisabeth (1837-1898) was a daughter of Duke Maximilian and Duchess Ludovika of Bavaria. In 1854 she married Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and became Empress of Austria. In 1867 she was crowned Queen of Hungary. Known for her excellent riding skills, she enjoyed hunting on her trips to Ireland in 1879 and 1880 and described them as some of her happiest times. She was stabbed to death by an anarchist in 1898 in Geneva. Her poem "Widmung" was part of the "Nordsee Lieder", written in the mid-1880s and inspired by the North Sea and Heine's poem cycle dedicated to it. The poem was translated into English and Irish by Sorcha de Brún and is read here by Natascha Guggi and Robert Henneberg.

Gabrielle Alioth is a Swiss author of novels, short stories, children's books, travelogues and poems. She has been resident in Ireland since 1984. In 2020 she was awarded the Cultural Prize of Riehen. Gabrielle Alioth is a member of the Association of Authors of Switzerland and the PEN Center of German-Speaking Authors Abroad. Her poetry volume The poet's coat was published in 2019.She will be reading her poem Bitte [Achainí]– which is premiered here at Dánnerstag. Translated into English by Gabrielle Alioth and Irish by Seán Keane.

Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) was a German poet and philosopher. He is seen one of the most important lyricists of his time. He was a friend of Hegel and Schelling. Much of Hölderlin's late poetry is based on historical themes and mythical memory and he refines the relationship between Greek and Christian religiosity. The poem presented here, Diotima (1797-1799) was translated into Irish by Isobel Ni Riain and is read here by her and Michael Kelly.

Berlin writer Nadja Küchenmeister has published three poetry volumes in Germany to high acclaim: Alle Lichter (2010), Unter dem Wacholder (2014) and Im Glasberg (2020). Unlike most other contemporary poets her work has been translated into English and Irish already some years ago by Hans-Christian Oeser and Gabriel Rosenstock. All three came to Limerick to perform a trilingual reading of their work in November 2015. For Dánnerstag, Nadja Küchenmeister chose staub [dust / dusta]  from their volume Unter dem Wacholder / Faoin Aiteal / Under the Juniper Tree (2015). Translated into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock and into English by Hans-Christian Oeser

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was a German poet and writer. He is considered one of the most important representatives of literary modernism, whereby his works can be assigned to impressionism and symbolism, but sometimes also take up motifs from Art Nouveau. His literary works include works in prose and lyrical products, but also some essays on art and literature. Translated by the late Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s (whose 100th birthday would have been on 4th April 2022) into English and Irish. Read by Billy O’Connor and Prof. Kerstin Mey, UL President.

René Böll is a visual artist with a strong connection to Ireland. He first went to Achill Island, Co. Mayo in 1955 as a child, after his father, Nobel Prize winning author Heinrich Böll, had explored Ireland the year before. The family spent many months on Achill over the years and it has become a second home for René Böll. In 2020 the first “Ambassador of Ireland – St. Patrick’s Day Award” was conferred upon him by the Irish Embassy in Berlin for his work promoting German-Irish relations and his ongoing support for the annual Heinrich Böll weekend. He has spent many years researching cilliní, the uninscribed graves of unbaptised children, and has been inspired by them both in his visual art and in the form of poetry, with which he contributes to Dánnerstag. His poem Cilliní was translated by Michael Augustin und Gabriel Rosenstock.