Room of Rumor: Tunings

Room of Rumor: Tunings is based in part on texts Austrian poet Oswald Egger wrote while a fellow at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. The original, largely conceived during his walks in Rustic Canyon in Pacific Palisades, was published by the German publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag in 2001.

Translator and composer Michael Pisaro, collaborating with Egger, reworked the original to create a new English text laid out in parallel construction, as lineated poetry above and prose below#&151;like figure and ground, a pointillistic canvas of words drawn from the landscape of Southern California, other American locations and a host of literary sources.

Egger was born in 1963 in Lana, Italy, and lives in Vienna and Hombroich, Germany. He is the author of several works of poetry, and has won numerous literary prizes, including the Mondsee Poetry Award, the George Saiko Award, the Brentano Award, and the Lyrikpreis Meran (2002).