Born in Dresden in 1962, Durs Grünbein is the most significant and successful poet to emerge from the former East Germany, a place where, he wrote, 'the best refuge was a closed mouth.' In unsettling, often funny, sometimes savage lines whose vivid images reflect his deep love for and connection with the visual arts, Grünbein is reinventing German poetry and taking on the most pressing moral concerns of his generation. Brilliantly edited and translated by Michael Hofmann, The Selected Poems of Durs Grünbein introduces Germany's most highly acclaimed contemporary poet to a British audience.

'Grünbein is a truly cosmopolitan poet . . . creating poetry which, however subtly, participates in and facilitates Germany's sustained attempts to reconfigurating and redefining itself in post-Cold War Europe.' Michael Eskin, Times Literary Supplement

Durs Grünbein is the author of six previous volumes of poetry and a collection of essays. His work has been awarded many major German literary prizes, including the highest, the Georg Büchner Prize. He has lived in Berlin since 1985.

Michael Hofmann was born in Germany, grew up in England, and teaches at the University of Florida. He has translated the work of Alfred Döblin, Franz Kafka, Hans Fallada, Gottfried Benn and Joseph Roth.