HANS MAGNUS ENZENSBERGER, considered Germany’s most important living poet, is also a highly regarded essayist, journalist, dramatist, editor, publisher, and translator. Born in 1929 in Bavaria, he was educated in German universities and also the Sorbonne in Paris. His many awards include the Nuremberg Cultural Prize and the Pasolini Prize.


"Enzensberger more than any other poet of his generation anywhere in the world, comes before the public with his own precepts, codes and taboos. . . Whose work has delved into and captured the thought of our time to the extent that Enzensberger's has."—Lawrence Joseph

"His poetry is built upon titanic German wreckage and tradition: always historical, lyrical, and, in different ways, revolutionary. . . The result is poetry of terror and beauty few would attempt to write."—Stanley Moss 

"Enzensberger's modernity —as distinct from modernism—lies in his exceptional grasp of the pluralism of our age. His work embodies the multiple awareness with which all of us are cursed."—Michael Hamburger