Das Grillenzirpen zwischen den Rippen

Unsolicited manuscripts are one of the plagues of everyday publishing life. But then suddenly the miracle happens: you open a submission and realise after a few words: literature, real literature! Awareness of form, precise condensation of feelings, an escape from the confines of the ego, intuitions and experiences.
That's how we felt about Elena Mpei's poems, and without knowing anything about the author, it was immediately clear that we would publish them. It is a debut of 32 poems with a wide range of topics: Mediterranean travel experiences and northern reflections, memories "from a handwritten time" and a staccato of messages from "social media" channels. It's about the disappearance of a small neighbourhood shop in Athens and the invasion of large wind turbines on islands in the Aegean; there is a cascade of maybe-considerations before the prospects of a youthful life, or that experience on the morning of a "non-binding spring" in Berlin, "when time crossed your path". And then there is the great "Manifesto of the Fire Growers" against the devastation of the concrete age. A must-read!