An Interview with Utz Rachowski
http://dx.doi.org/10.25094/rtp.2019n26a547 Poetry as sustenance for the soul: an interview with Utz Rachowski Louise STOEHR* Utz Rachowski, born 1954 in Saxony in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), first experienced state-sponsored persecution when he was interrogated by the East German State Secret Police (Stasi) and then expelled from high school for discussing literature not approved by the state with a small group of fellow students. From October 1979 until December 1980, he was a political prisoner in that country, where he was sentenced to 27 months in prison because the state secret police considered five of his poems to be subversive, anti- state agitation. Through the efforts of Amnesty International, he was released from prison, then expatriated and exiled to West Germany, where he studied philosophy and art history before establishing himself as a freelance writer of prose, poetry, and radio plays. Rachowski was co- editor of the literary journal Ostragehege from 1993 to 1999. Since 2003, he has worked under the auspices of the Saxon State Commission for Stasi Files as a rehabilitation counsellor for victims of the former GDR dictatorship. Rachowski has published 14 books of stories, essays, and poetry; he has performed readings and given lectures throughout Germany, the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Senegal, Kenya, Lithuania, and Poland. Rachowski’s works have been translated into English, Polish, French, Spanish, Serbian, and Finnish. His more recent awards include the first Reiner Kunze-Prize in 2007 and the 2008 Hermann-Hesse-Stipend. In 2012, he was writer-in- residence at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania.
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