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KIM DAMMERS Personal I live in the lovely town of Goettingen, Germany, known, as the poet Heine once wrote, for its sausages and its university, where the cultural life is active but the weather and many of the citizens over-cast. When I am not in the http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/index-e.html> university library , I am usally out photographing, biking, running, swimming, or hiking in the near-by hills and fields. I also partake in Spanish-language theatre and teach rueda. I have two grown daughters, both of whom live in California. When I am stressed out, I try to improve my nascent skills on the guitar and bagpipes . Literary Approach I am a poet. I believe poetry is a calling and not a profession. Life should be lived -- and then reflected There-fore, I do not aspire to a position as poet or poetry instructor. My poetry includes both the conventional and the unconventional. I am interested in the manipulation of rhyme schemes and rhythms as both a challenge for the creator and as an intensifying and enriching opportunity for the reader. Among the forms I have used are hyper-text, loose-leaf, and, my particular favorite, cross-reading. None of my published work has been science fiction poetry: I am currently looking for an appropriate venue for the latter. I have also written fiction and essays. None of my fiction has been published yet. Frankly and vainly, I have to admit that this has been quite irritating and frustrating, since my sf stories are far better than so much that gets published. Most publishers these days do not even show the courtesy of responding with the enclosed SASEs. Among my preferences and influences in my writing are Herodotus, Addison, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Heine, the schoolhouse poets, the Shelleys and Keats, Thackery, Poe, Thomas Hardy, Flaubert, George Eliot, Tagore, cummings, Sandburg, Theodore Sturgeon, Allen Ginsberg, Neruda, P. K. Dick, Vonnegut, Harry Harrison, Dario Fo, Coetzee, Martin Grzimek, Harry Mathews, and Andrei Codrescu . Other I have given a number of poetry readings in the U.S. and Germany. I am currently working on a verse play centered around a generation star-ship. I am conducting research on H. Rider Haggard, archaeological fiction, and sf taught at German universities. Sample Short Story (non-sf) I, Minick I shall go out the door on the twenty-seventh. It will take me no longer than usual to lock up the house and pull the garbage can around to where it can be picked up. I'll then walk to the commuter station, essentially ignoring the drug-dazed kids along the way. At the station, I'll buy a daily and settle into its pleasure and mind massage a few minutes, until the train comes. On board, I'll seek out, with-out much trouble, my anonymous companions and join the conversation. It will focus on the new player and how well he will have played the day before. This will absorb me. I shall be absorbed in this conversation. The conversation will consume my attention. My attention will focus, like a lens, on the topic of the conversation. Only the topic will be in my presence until the train will jolt and turn as it snuggles into the station. In the station, I will dispense with the sports talk. I shall shuffle off toward my office, essentially ignoring the drug-dazed youth along the way. I will not notice the green water beneath the bridge, its lapping song. I will go to my office. In my office, I shall sit and work. My work will absorb me. I shall absorb my work. I will be consumed by my work. I shall focus on my work. I will return home. I shall return home on the evening commuter train, after having, essentially, ignored the wine-dazed old men along the way to the bridge. I shall return home in the evening on the commuter train after having essentially ignored the wine-dazed old men along the bridge on the way to the station. I shall buy an evening edition. At the station, I shall buy an evening edition. I shall be absorbed until I reach home. . / . Names of Sample Stories "January 1, 2000" (sf) "Asparagus Spring" (non-sf) "La Besa" (non-sf) "Which Person?" (semi-sf) "It's Not Fair" (horror) "So Many Keys” (non-sf) Award Floating Arts Festival international Poetry Contest: first place, long poems. Interviews Stadtradio Goettingen, 2000. Koma, 6/96. |
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