editorial
In Lieu of an Editorial
...an only daughter; my narration
May have suggested that this single one
Could be but Julia (whom on this occasion
I shall have much to speak about), and she
Was married, chaste, and twenty-three
(Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto the First)
About the authors in newleaf 23
Claire Askew is entering her final year of an MA in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. She still doesn't know what she's doing most of the time. She is a collector of strange writing credits most recently, her poetry was featured in a short collection, Type Dreams, published by the Forest Free Press. In her spare time, she attends any creative writing group that will put up with her, and compares artistic temperaments with her painting-mad fiance.
Julia Boll is one of the three editors of newleaf. She graduated from Bremen in 2005 and is now a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh, where she happily recruits new authors for newleaf. Refusing to give in to the fact that she and her favourite literary magazine now reside in two different countries, she has taken to skyping with newleaf HQ whenever possible and can often be seen in internet cafes in the Scottish capital babbling editorial gibberish down her headset.
George Gordon, Lord Byron (6th Baron) is President for Life of the Dead Poets Society and Chair of Romantics Against The G8. Prior to Otto Rehhagel, he was manager of the Greek national squad. This is his first publication in newleaf and he will be donating half his fee to Fathers 4 Justice.
Silke Hartmann recently finished her studies at the University of Bremen and has been living in, out of and surrounded by boxes ever since. As she emigrated to the far country of Spätzle and Gsälz in June, she misses her hanseatic life a lot. She finally settled down in a town where they make a big fuss about a guy called Schiller and she hopes that all her new adventures will give her the opportunity to write a lot herself.
Ole D. Herlyn is proud she managed to write five lines for this biography. This makes a total of ...let's see... five lines written this year. Life outside university challenges her to care more for the words of other people than her own. With one foot deep in translation, there’s just enough room to practice the cello every day. Maybe one day she will sit down and write and become a world famous poet? Yeah, sure...
Franziska Kreuser is now dangerously teetering on the verge of finishing her university studies. We recommend severe observation and professional guidance, so that she will neither harm herself nor others through either hysteria or overabundance of joy. Her clinical obsessions now also include a fatal Bollywood fever and severe damage to the hips by oriental dancing. In an attempt to save herself and others we must insist on keeping her under strict observation at all times. Signed: Dr. Bannister, as in sliding down the.
Matthew McGuire teaches Scottish and Irish literature at the University of Glasgow. He has published work on James Kelman, Roddy Doyle, Bernard MacLaverty and contemporary Northern Irish poetry.
Tatjana Pfennig currently juggles writing and work, but thankfully her favourite writing time is at night, when she‘s sitting at her cluttered desk with her window open. When she isn‘t trying to club down inspiration, she writes poetry and prose and the occasional card on holidays. The only things she doesn‘t like to write are shopping lists and bio texts. She is notorious for writing about the supernatural or, well, writing.
Patricia Schultz is a writer, comedian and music video producer. She lives in Bremen and is a shopophobic on Saturdays and a coffee addict for the rest of the week; never talk to her before she’s had her first cup. She has published in newleaf before and in 2004 directed the first newleaf film ever: Everything you ever wanted to know about newleaf but never dared to ask.
Lacey Smith is a student of Dickinson College, Carlisle PA, currently spending a year in Germany, who originally hails from Loveland, Colorado (no, she did not ski to school everyday). A child prodigy of sorts, she was published four times before age 13, when people stopped finding her poems interesting because she was pubescent. She will return to Dickinson to finish her degree in International Studies with a minor in English, hopefully to pursue a doctorate in Comparative Literature.
Ryan Van Winkle has had poems published in a bunch of small magazines you have never heard of including: Small Fry, Submit, ducts.org, FuseLit, Stimulus, Respond, and CIA Nights. His journalism has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Sunday Herald and Black and White Magazine. He has recently performed at the Home Base Festival in Scotland as well as part of the Leith Festival in Edinburgh. He is the worst travel journalist in the world.
Ian Watson is from Belfast and has lived in Bremen for thirty years. He has been writing and publishing poems, articles and literary translations in English and German since the seventies. He also does radio work and is the co-author of the TV film Cool to be Celtic (arte 1999) on Irish popular music. He teaches British and Irish Literature and Creative Writing at Bremen and has run out of silly things to say about himself.
