COMP CLOSED | Book Giveaway | Garments of the Dead

Erudite, witty, economical and elegantly composed, the poetry collection Garments of the Dead is an immersive read.

Koenraad Kuiper’s poems are animated by a frugal, astringent, ironic intelligence that reminds me of when the word ‘wit’ was used to describe or even name the verse of the Metaphysical poets. However, these poems are not historical pastiche, but are unmistakably contemporary, as in the several formal variations of his ‘Benedictine Sonnets’.

Most of the poems belong in sequences and play with variations on themes, a cumulative strategy that complements and extends their laconic humour. From time to time a translation is included, in Dutch mostly but occasionally in German — sometimes the English reads as though it is the translated version, a deliberate, playful oddness. Erudite, witty, economical, and elegantly composed, these poems are a pleasure to read piecemeal but even more from beginning to end as a complete, sustained immersion. – Ian Wedde, Katherine‐ Mansfield Memorial Fellow

Koenraad Kuiper emigrated from the Netherlands in 1951. His poems have appeared in Islands, Landfall, Poetry New Zealand, Sport and Takahe. He has previously published four books of poetry: Signs of Life, Mikrokosmos, Timepieces and Bounty, at about ten-year intervals. He has also published, with Sarah Hart, a volume of translations of the work of the Dutch poet Frank Koenegracht entitled Early Snow with Spuyten Duyvil in New York.

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