I am so sorry to have to share some terribly sad news here.  I spoke recently with a family member of Matthias Kruger,  the truly wonderful publisher at Newington Blue Press in Germany.  Our friend Matthias has passed away very suddenly due to a heart attack.

If you were lucky enough to know Matthias, then you know how important he was to so many creative people.  He was an easygoing, sublimely good-natured man whose love of literature was cheerfully contagious.  This was best evidenced, of course, by his outstanding work on Newington Blue Press’ BUK100 series — a beautiful series of elegant chapbooks commemorating the legacy of Charles Bukowski.

If you are anything like me, you hope that Mathias is somewhere tonight kicking back and having a beer with ol’ Buk himself — who is doubtlessly pleased by the way Matthias encouraged countless others to enjoy the writer’s work.