Karl Jirgens
Photo : Stuart Ross
About
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Karl Jirgens, former English Department Head, and former Chair of the Creative Writing Program (University of Windsor), is author of five books (Coach House, Mercury, ECW and Porcupine’s Quill Presses). He edited two books (on painter Jack Bush, and poet Christopher Dewdney) and with Beatriz Hausner, co-edited the “Collaborations” issue of Open Letter magazine. His current collection of short-fiction is, The Razor’s Edge (Porcupine’s Quill, 2022). His scholarly and creative works are published globally. Jirgens has published three short story collections, thus far. Jirgens edited/published Rampike, an international journal of art, writing, and theory (1979-2016), now digitally archived with free public access to over 4000 pages. All copyrights remain with the contributors.
Jirgens is a member of the Latvian diaspora. Both of his parents were WW2 refugees. He is also a Grandmaster (8th degree Black Belt) of the Korean Martial Art of Tae Kwon Do.
Photo: Sandra Feldman
What critics say about Jirgens' writing:
“takes the post-mortem out of post-modern”
— Steve McCaffery
“Jirgens is an alchemist.”
— Steven Ross Smith (on A Measure of Time)
“Jirgens is a highly talented writer wrestling with complex material…a very rewarding literary experience.”
— Kevin Connolly (Mondo Hunkamooga).
“Jirgens’ method is that of ‘pataphysics,’ the science of imaginary solutions proposed in the 1890s by Alfred Jarry. His instruments are the pataphysician’s; the pun, the speculative leap, the impeccable train of logic derailed…elegant and witty. -- In these days of bland, commercial almost corporate fiction, it is a welcome breath of reality.”
— Brian Shein (Quill & Quire).
“Jirgens mixes the mundane and fantastic, the conceptual and the anecdotal”
— John Oughton (on Strappado)