“If there is a country named Celania—as Julia Kristeva once proposed—its holy texts are filled with doubt, and they overcome this doubt almost successfully, with words of wrenching, uncompromised beauty...The book in your hands is not intended to become one of those heavy scholarly tomes that serve as a “proof” of one’s position in the literary/academic hierarchy. Rather, this is a collection of various works, directed at, or inspired by, the words of Paul Celan. What we wanted to make was a living anthology, in which authors observe the poet’s work, read it deeply, penetrate and discuss it, but also play with it, remake it, and attempt to fit it into their own worldviews. A great poet is not someone who speaks in stadiums to a thousand listeners. A great poet is a very private person. In his privacy this poet creates a language in which he is able to speak, privately, to many people at the same time.”

Ilya Kaminsky is the author of Dancing in Odessa (Tupelo Press) andco-editor of Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (Harper Collins). He hasreceived Whiting Writers Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters’Metcalf Award, and Lannan Fellowship

G.C. Waldrep's most recent collections are Archicembalo (winner of the Dorset Prize) and Your Father on the Train of Ghosts (in collaboration with John Gallaher). He lives in Lewisburg, Pa., where he teaches at Bucknell University, edits the journal West Branch, and serves as Editor-at-Large for The Kenyon Review.

Listen to G.C.'s wonderful feature on National Public Radio.