Reading and Discussion with Michael Lentz
The narrator is held in complete darkness and isolation. His endless thoughts are turned into the book Schattenfroh - directed by none other than the narrator’s mysterious jailer by the same name. Undulating through explorations of Renaissance art, the German reformation, time-defying esoterica, the printing process in the 16th century, Kabbalistic mysticism, and beyond, Schattenfroh is a remarkable book that, in turn, asks the remarkable of its readers.
Interruptions, breaks, and annotations both buoy and deceive, and endless historical references, literary allusions, and wordplay construct a baroque, encyclopedic quest. Schattenfroh’s publication in English marks a seminal moment in the history of the literary form.
"What does Schattenfroh do? Intrigue, frustrate, hypnotize, even—yes—entertain, after a certain point. What novels are supposed to do, in other words—which, we begin to realize, is not actually to create Presence but to carve around it." - Los Angeles Review of Books
Participants
Michael Lentz was born in Düren. He studied German language and literature, philosophy, and history in Aachen and Munich, earning his doctorate in 1998 with a thesis on sound poetry and sound music after 1945. He lives in Berlin and Leipzig.
Lentz is a writer, musician, performance artist, literary scholar, and editor. He has published numerous novels, poetry collections, radio plays, audiobooks (CDs), stage plays, and essays, as well as works of acoustic literature and musical compositions. Most recently, he edited the *Neue Rundschau* issue titled "Briefgedicht Klanggedicht Liedgedicht Metagedicht Gedichtgedicht" (Letter Poem, Sound Poem, Song Poem, Meta-Poem, Poem-Poem; Issue 4/2025, S. Fischer 2026).
As a saxophonist, this "gifted artist of language" (Andreas Puff-Trojan, Südwestrundfunk) performs in ensembles such as the trios Lentz Geisse Wertmüller and Lentz Pliakas Wertmüller (alongside Gunnar Geisse, Marino Pliakas, and Michael Wertmüller).
In 2006, Michael Lentz was appointed Professor of Literary Writing at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig, a position he holds to this day. He has been a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature since 2014.
Lentz has received numerous awards, including the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize (2001), the Prize of the Literature Houses (2005), the Walter Hasenclever Literature Prize (2012), and, most recently, the Bettina Brentano Prize for Contemporary Poetry (2024). He has held visiting professorships in poetics in cities including Frankfurt, Kiel, Cologne, Paderborn, and Vienna.
Selected Publications:
Heimwärts, Roman. S. Fischer (2024)
Grönemeyer, S. Fischer (2024)
Chora Gedichte, S. Fischer (2023)
Schattenfroh. Ein Requiem, Roman. S. Fischer 2018.
Atmen Ordnung Abgrund, Frankfurter Poetikvorlesungen. S. Fischer (2013)
Offene Unruh Gedichte, S. Fischer (2010)
Pazifik Exil, Roman S. Fischer (2007)
Muttersterben, Erzählungen. S. Fischer (2002)
Max Lawton was born in Brussels and grew up in Chicago.
He received his BA in Russian Literature and Culture from Columbia University. He received the Clarendon Fund Scholarship for his Masters of Philosophy from The Queen's College, Oxford. He lives in Los Angeles.
In addition to Russian, Lawton has translated from French and German, such as Jonathan Littell's The Damp and the Dry and Michael Lentz's novel Schattenfroh.
Lawton's translation of Red Pyramid: Selected Stories by Vladimir Sorokin won the 2025 AATSEEL prize for Best Translation of Prose into English. In 2026, Lawton's translation of Schattenfroh by Michael Lentz from German to English won the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize.
Partner
Schattenfroh. A Requiem is published by Deep Vellum Publishing
