I grew up in the German Democratic Republic in Lusatia a region in Eastern Germany near Poland and Czech Republic, that was heavily impacted by the upheaval of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I studied literary writing at the Deutsches Literaturinstitut in Leipzig, one of the few recognized institutions for creative writing in Germany. A central theme of my first poetry collection translated by Caroline Wilcox Reul into English In the morning we are glass (Zephyr Press 2021) is disappearance. In this collection, the speaker returns to different locations of the region lusatia – not physically but rather in memory. The poems are reflecting the landscape and villages of the Sorbian minority which were destroyed in the extraction of brown coal. I won the Open Mike Lyric Prize in 2015 and the Leonce and Lena Prize in 2017.
In recent years, my work has focussed on poems about certain regions of Eastern Europe, for example Poland, Romania, Georgia and also Ukraine. The poems venture to sensitive locations in Europe and approach cultural and ethnic conflicts, political turmoil, and historically based upheaval. Conflicts such as the war after the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, the regressive situation in Belarus after the failed revolution, the increasingly nationalistic tendencies in countries such as Poland and Hungary preoccupy me. Writers have the opportunity to call attention to these occurrences and warn us of how dangerously close history is to repeating itself.
I have been awarded residencies at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (2018), Broumov Monestary in the Czech Republic (2020), MuesumsQuartier Vienna (2020), at the International Writers and Translators House of Ventspils in Latvia (2021) and the Edith-Stein-House in Wrocław in Poland (2024). In 2022 I was invited to participate at the XIII. International Literature Festival Meridian Czernowitz in Ukraine. Together with Rivardo Niyónīzígiye, I wrote the text for the transcultural music theatre „The Ingabo – A night to fall“ (2023) – about the Burundian resistance against the Germans in Eastern Africa- a bilateral coproduction between Umunyinya asble Bujumbura (Burundi) and „Kommen und Gehen“ – Das Sechsstädtebundfestival (Lusatia, Germany)! The videomaker Ludovico Failla produced the short poetry film of the poetry cycle „Alb“, nominated for the public award of the Feldkircher Poetry Price 2022. My second poetry collection Tulpa was published in 2023 by poetenladen. Since the end of 2024 I have been „Writer in Residence“ at the Villa Rosenthal, in Jena. In 2025, I will participate in the 58th International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (US).
poetry book
My first poetry collection Am morgen sind wir aus glas (poetenladen 2017) was translated into English by Caroline Wilcox Reul and published by Zephyr Press in the US (2021).
LISTEN TO THE POET
Reading with Caroline Wilcox Reul out of the poetry collection In the morning we are glass (Zephyr Press 2021)
READ more
If you wanna read more about my poetry have a look at the Global Voices Interview in conversation with LIT’s JP Apruzzese
Contact me
Please feel free to contact me, if you are interested in my poetry.
Published
Andra Schwarz: In the morning we are glass (excerpt 2020)
Translated by Caroline Wilcox Reul
Columbia Journal (US)
Andra Schwarz: In the morning we are glass (excerpt 2020)
Translated by Caroline Wilcox Reul
LIT Magazine (US)
Andra Schwarz: In the morning we are glass (excerpt 2020)
Translated by Caroline Wilcox Reul
Bomb Cyclone (US)
Andra Schwarz: In the morning we are glass (excerpt 2020)
Translated by Caroline Wilcox Reul
Actionbooks (US)
Andra Schwarz: In the morning we are glass (excerpt 2019)
Translated by Caroline Wilcox Reul
Tupelo Quaterly (US)
Reviews
„During the last lockdown in Germany, I read Schwarz’s poetry for the first time. The opportunity to revisit her work in Reul’s English has been a great joy; I can see in each and every verse Reul’s attention to her personal poetics, which culminates in an astounding collection. I cannot wait to read more from these poets!“
— Kraig Davis, Kenyon Review (2021)
„Andra Schwarz’s book of poems explores the intimacy of borders on multiple levels. She calls her poems Reisegedichte, or travel poems, to suggest movement or journey along pathways that cross from one space to another. In her poems she moves between dark and light, forest and meadow/bog, the world of Germany against the tiny corner of the Sorbian (aka Wends) lands, between wilderness and farmland, and city and country.“
— Will Reger, Ciderpress Review (2021)
ANDRA SCHWARZ 