Sound Seekers

Christoph Keller (1963), born in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and writing in German and English, is the author of numerous prizewinning novels, plays and essays in German, including I'd Like My Country Flat (Ich haette das Land gern flach) (1996), the best-selling memoir The Best Dancer (Der Beste Taenzer) (2003) about his life with the progressive neuromuscular disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, A Worrisome State of Bliss (stories written in English, 2016) and The Ground Beneath the Feet (Der Boden unter den Fuessen) (2019). In 2017, Alice James Books published We're On: A June Jordan Reader, coedited with Jan Heller Levi. Keller lived in New York for twenty years. In 2018 he heeded the president's advice and went back to where he came from. (fr. www.christophkeller.us) Clemens Umbricht (born 1960) is a publishing director in Teufen, Switzerland, and has published several volumes of poetry. His books of poems include Museum der Einsichten, orte-Verlag, Oberegg, Switz. (2012); LyrikHeft 13, Sonnenberg-Presse, Chemnitz/Kemberg, Germany (2012); Die Augen ueber dem Bildrand, San Marco Handpresse, Neustadt, Germ. (2007). His poems are published in anthologies, newspapers, and magazines. Among other awards, he has twice won the Poetry Prize of the Swiss literary magazine orte. He lives in Andwil, Switz. He did the Swiss German translations of the Keller works included in this volume.

Welcome to Christoph Keller's America the Beautiful & Other Indictments, whose title is as misleading as its apercus are biting original. Like pinpricks penetrating a dark veil, these glittering insights are arranged as cunningly as they are crafted, for a constellation greater than the sum of its shards. - Madison Smartt Bell, author, All Souls Rising, Master of the Crossroads, and Zero db Some observations from the European press on Christoph Keller's latest novel in German, Der Boden unter den Fuessen (The Ground Beneath the Feet): A poetic and optimistic book. - WDR5 (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) Magical! - Style A narrative jewel. - Neue Zuercher Zeitung am Sonntag Who travels, they say, educates themselves. But maybe they only pollute the world. - Suedkurier ... featherlight, sparklingly elegant as Duke Ellington's piano. - kulturzeitschrift (Austria)