Theo Breuer (born 30 March 1956) is a German poet, essayist, editor, translator and publisher.

Life and work

Theo Breuer was born in

Bürvenich Bürvenich is a village in the borough of Zülpich in the district of Euskirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. References Literature * Christian Quix: ''Die Grafen von Hengebach. Die Schlösser und Städtchen Heimbach Heimbach is a town in ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and educated at

Cologne University The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

where he studied German and English

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

. He has written many books of poetry and essays on contemporary literature since 1988. In collaboration with artists and poets in Canada, England, Italy, Japan, the US and many other countries, he has published experimental and

visual poetry Literary theorists have identified visual poetry as a development of concrete poetry but with the characteristics of intermedia in which non-representational language and visual elements predominate. Differentiation from concrete poetry As the li ...

. In 2007, Redfoxpress (Dugort,

Achill Island Achill Island (; ga, Acaill, Oileán Acla) in County Mayo is the largest of the Irish isles, and is situated off the west coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It has a population of 2,594. Its area is . Achill is attached to the mainland by ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

) published ''Word Theatre'', a selection of Breuer's visual poetry. Breuer has participated in numerous

mail art Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Schoo ...

projects since 1991 together with artists such as

Ryosuke Cohen is a mail artist. He was responsible for the Brain Cell mail art project, which he began in June 1985 and retains thousands of members in more than 80 countries, e.g. Hans Braumüller, Theo Breuer, Michael Leigh or Litsa Spathi. In August 2001 he ...

, Guillermo Deisler, David Dellafiora or György Galántai. He has written a number of long essays and monographs exploring the widely-ramifying possibilities of literary expression and verse-forms since 1989 and portraying poets such as

Hans Bender Hans Bender (5 February 1907 – 7 May 1991) was a German lecturer on the subject of parapsychology, who was also responsible for establishing the parapsychological institute ''Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene'' in F ...

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civilizati ...

Rolf Dieter Brinkmann Rolf Dieter Brinkmann (16 April 1940 – 23 April 1975) was a German writer of poems, short stories, a novel, essays, letters, and diaries. Life and work Rolf Dieter Brinkmann is considered an important forerunner of the German so-called ''Pop-Li ...

Michael Hamburger Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger (22 March 1924 – 7 June 2007) was a noted German-British translator, poet, critic, memoirist and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and ...

Ernst Jandl Ernst Jandl (; 1 August 1925 – 9 June 2000) was an Austrian writer, poet, and translator. He became known for his experimental lyric, mainly sound poems (''Sprechgedichte'') in the tradition of concrete and visual poetic forms. Poetry Inf ...

Thomas Kling Thomas Kling (June 5, 1957 – April 1, 2005) was a German poet. Life Thomas Kling was born in Bingen am Rhein, grew up in Hilden and went to school in Düsseldorf. He studied philology in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Vienna and lived in Finland for ...

Friederike Mayröcker Friederike Mayröcker (20 December 1924 – 4 June 2021) was an Austrian writer of poetry and prose, audio plays, children's books and dramatic texts. She experimented with language, and was regarded as an avantgarde poet, and as one of the lea ...

W. G. Sebald Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Sebald or (as he preferred) Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by literary critics as one of the g ...

and plenty of others. Theo Breuer's poems have been translated into Arabic, English, French, Georgian, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Russian and published in numerous national and international anthologies, calendars, catalogues, literary magazines, and the Internet. He has translated two books of poetry by

Richard Berengarten Richard Berengarten (born 4 June 1943) is an English poet. Having lived in Italy, Greece, the US and the former Yugoslavia, his perspectives as a poet combine English, French, Mediterranean, Jewish, Slavic, American and Oriental influences. His ...

(aka Richard Burns) into German: ''Tree'' (''Baum'', 1989) and ''Black Light'' (''Schwarzes Licht'', 1996). In 2009 he participated in ''Richard Berengarten, Volta: A Multilingual Anthology'', issue 9 of ''The International Literary Quarterly'' (London). At his small press, Edition YE, which he founded in 1993, Breuer has also published the poetry magazine ''Faltblatt'' (Flyer), the ''YE'' international anthology series, an assemblage with original art and handwritten poetry containing original works by approx. 300 authors and artists from 28 countries, among others

John M. Bennett John M. Bennett (born 1942, in Chicago) is an American experimental text, sound, and visual poet. Personal life Bennett was born in 1942 in Chicago. After World War II he spent three years of his childhood living in Japan, where his fathe ...

, Guillermo Deisler, or Michael Leigh, and a series of contemporary German poets. As editor of an annual anthology of handwritten poetry he has collected original autographs by well-known poets such as Hans Bender, Richard Berengarten,

Günter Kunert Günter Kunert (; 6 March 1929 – 21 September 2019) was a German writer. Based in East Berlin, he published poetry from 1947, supported by Bertold Brecht. After he had signed a petition against the deprivation of the citizenship of Wolf Biermann ...

Walter Helmut Fritz Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

, Michael Hamburger and many more. Each issue of these hand-bound

artists' book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

s also contains original art by contemporary international artists. As permanent freelancer of the German annual ''

Muschelhaufen ''Muschelhaufen'' (heap of shells) is a German annual, originally combining literature and graphic arts. It was founded by Erik Martin from Viersen in 1969 and published - with an interruption of 11 years - until 2008, when the last issue came ou ...

'' (edited by

Erik Martin Erik Martin (12 January 1936 in Neuss – 25 April 2017) was a German writer, songwriter and composer of songs. He was the founder and editor of the literature and art magazine ''Muschelhaufen''. Life and work Erik Martin was the first-born son ...

) from 1994–2008 Breuer contributed essays and reviews on mail art, contemporary poetry and prose as well as portraits on coeval authors and small presses. A fabulous reader not only of his own poetry, Breuer presents overviews of German poetry from the beginnings in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

up to the present in the 21st century.Matthias Hagedorn: ''Große Lyrik im kleinen Kreis'' (Great Poetry in Small Circles

/ref> Theo Breuer lives in the village of Sistig (municipality Kall, Germany, Kall) in the

Eifel National Park The Eifel National Park (german: Nationalpark Eifel) is the 14th national park in Germany and the first in North Rhine-Westphalia. The park was founded in 2004, and is classified as a "national park in development". Eifel National Park is par ...

near the Belgian border.

Publications (selection)

Poetry

* ''nicht weniger nicht mehr'', 2021. * ''Scherben saufen'', 2019. * ''Das gewonnene Alphabet'', 2012. * ''Wortlos'' (Wordless), 2009. * ''Word Theatre''. Visual Poetry, 2007. * ''Nacht im Kreuz''. (Night in the Cross), 2006. * ''Land Stadt Flucht'' (Country City Getaway), 2002. * ''Alpha und Omega und'' (Alpha and Omega and), 1998. * ''Das letzte Wort hat Brinkmann'' (Brinkmann Has the Final Say), 1996. * ''m%nday'', 1996. * ''Black Box''. Visual Poetry, 1995. * ''Der blaue Schmetterling'' (The Blue Butterfly), 1994. * ''Mittendrin'' (Right in the Middle), 1991. * ''Eifeleien'' (

Eifel The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

Poems), 1988.

Monographs

* ''Winterbienen im Urftland. Empfundene/erfundene Welten'' in

Norbert Scheuer Norbert Scheuer (born December 16, 1951 in Prüm, Westeifel, Rheinland-Palatinate) is a German author. He earns a living as an IT system programmer for Deutsche Telekom and now lives in Keldenich, Kall, North Rhine-Westphalia in the area where h ...

s Gedichten und Geschichten, 2019. * ''Zischender Zustand. Mayröcker Time'', 2017. * ''Kiesel & Kastanie. Von neuen Gedichten und Geschichten''] (Pebble and Chestnut: New Poems and Prose), 2008. * ''Aus dem Hinterland. Lyrik nach 2000''] (From the Hinterland: Poetry Since 2000), 2005. * ''Ohne Punkt & Komma: Lyrik in den 90er Jahren'' (Without Full Stop & Comma: Poetry in the Nineties), 1999.

References

Kürschners Deutscher Literatur-Kalender
Saur, München 2010. * Matthias Hagedorn: Wortlos und andere Gedichte. Zu Wort kommen lassen. Eine Würdigung des Lyrikers, Herausgebers und Verlegers Theo Breuer. In:

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

vom 18. Januar 2009

* Andreas Noga: Wortlos und andere Gedichte, Poetenladen, Leipzig 200

* Christoph Leisten: Poetisches Denkmal für das mittelgebirgische Dorf. Zu Theo Breuers Gedichtband »Land Stadt Flucht«. In: Der Dreischneuß. Halbjahresschrift für Literatur, Lübeck 2003. * Heinz Ludwig Arnold und Jörgen Schäfer (Hg.), Popliteratur, edition text + kritik, München 2003. * Das Kölner Autorenlexikon 1750–2000. Zweiter Band 1900–2000, Emons, Köln 2002.

Notes

External links

Literaturport
*

* ttp://www.titel-magazin.de/artikel/6/4855.html Review ''Kiesel & Kastanie. Von neuen Gedichten und Geschichten'' (Pebble and Chestnut: New Poetry and Prose)
Theo Breuer: ''Mail Art''
In: ''Wandler. Zeitschrift für Literatur''. Vol. 18
Matthias Hagedorn: Aus dem Hinterland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breuer, Theo 1956 births Living people People from Euskirchen (district) German poets German essayists Writers from North Rhine-Westphalia German literary critics German translators German editors German male essayists German male poets German-language poets