Program archive

Bilingual reading and book release with Andrea Scrima and Heike Geißler (english/german)

Join us for a bilingual reading event hosted by Lettrétage and the Berlin Writers' Workshop. We're celebrating the rerelease of Andrea Scrima's novel "A Lesser Day" and its new German edition, "Wie viele Tage". Scrima will be joined in reading by novelist Heike Geißler ("Rosa", "Nichts, was tragisch wäre", "Saisonarbeit") and appear in conversation with Berlin Writers' Workshop co-founder, Rebecca Rukeyser.

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Reading and Book Launch with Kate McNaughton

Join us for the Berlin launch of “How I Lose You”, a novel by Kate McNaughton, which has just been published in the UK by Doubleday and in France by Les Escales. There will be a reading and Q&A (moderated by fellow author Jessica Miller) before the evening turns to drinks and music. When Eva and Adam fall into bed one Friday night, tired and happy after drinks with friends, they have their whole lives ahead of them. But their story ends on page twelve.

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The Berlin Writers' Workshop and Lettrétage present a trilingual reading event with Gregor Guth (Austria), Alan Mills (Guatemala) and Rebecca Rukeyser (USA).

Gregor Guth, geboren 1979 in Wien. Studium der französischen Kulturwissenschaften in Wien und Paris. Studium am Deutschen Literaturinstitut Leipzig. Startstipendium für Literatur des österreichischen Bundeskanzleramtes 2014. Seine Kurzgeschichten und Gedichte wurden in zahlreichen Zeitschriften und Anthologien veröffentlicht (u. a. in LICHTUNGEN, kolik  sowie im Sammelband zum MDR-Literaturwettbewerb). Er lebt in Berlin.

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SAND 17 Launch Party. Featuring John Beer, Jennifer Kronovet, Nate McCarthy, James Shea, Dorothy Tse and Tse Hao Guang.

Five acclaimed poets and one prose writer will collectively circumnavigate the globe to present micro-readings and celebrate SAND’s worldly new 17th issue. Two share the name Tse, two make allusions to T.S.E., another speaks Yiddish, and the last one just braved the Australian outback. Stick around for DJ sets, drinks, and dancing into the wee hours, and don’t forget to pick up a freshly printed copy of SAND. Featuring John Beer, Jennifer Kronovet, Nate McCarthy, James Shea, Dorothy Tse and Tse Hao Guang.
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Ein Hörspaziergang mit Hör-Regenschirmen von  Stephanie Green (GB) und Sonja Heyer (D) im Viktoria-Park, Berlin Kreuzberg

Ort: Viktoria-Park Berlin Kreuzberg, entlang des Wasserlaufs,
Beginn: Café Golgatha. Zeit: 3./10./17. Juni 14:00-18:00 Uhr

click more for english version

Berlin UMBRELLA ist ein poetischer Soundwalk mit Hörregenschirmen durch den Viktoria-Park in Berlin Kreuzberg. In einem Gedicht der englischen Poetin Stephanie Green, vertont von der Berliner Klangkünstlerin Sonja Heyer, wird die Spree von ihren drei Quellen bis zu ihrer Mündung akustisch eingefangen und erzählt  vom eiszeitlichen Ursprung in der Oberlausitz über die Entwicklung des Radialsystems, vom Mord an Rosa Luxemburg an der Lichtensteinbrücke 1919 bis zum Fall der Mauer 1989, von der wechselvollen Geschichte und Gegenwart der Stadt. Berlin UMBRELLA umfasst sechs Verse, die – gleich einem Haiku – in selbstgewählter Reihenfolge gehört werden können. Besucher*innen können Hörregenschirme im Café Golgatha leihen und damit durch den Park spazieren, verweilen und Schirme mit anderen Besucher*innen tauschen.

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Reading with Barrett Watten and Daniel Tiffany

Barrett Watten plans to read “Plan B”, a poem written in the aftermath of our national catastrophe, as a kind of “knowledge base” for the symbolic rubble of the election and the state of political crisis it produced. The keyword 'Gleichschaltung', drawn from the German experience in March 1933, is used as a call not to “normalize” the result of the election—an imperative that continues for many. Both terms appear at regular intervals through the poem. Also evoked is the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald—a 1975 maritime disaster on the Great Lakes (and ballad by Gordon Lightfoot) that is iconic for residents of Michigan, for whom it represents the destruction of the state as well as the wreck itself. The poem is translated into German by Munich performance poet Franziska Ruprecht, and will be presented in multi-media format, along with other works.

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Reading hosted by Traci Kim – lineup TBA, submission deadline June 10

Literally Speaking is Berlin's fiction reading series that features local writers and the authors who inspire their stories. Each month, five writers share their original work, as well as an excerpt from an author of their choice that highlights the month’s theme. The purpose of the excerpts is to get everyone in Berlin’s literary community “on the same page.” It’s a way to see what’s catalyzing our local writers and bring us closer together through literature.

For submission guidelines and inquiries, check out Literally Speaking’s Facebook page or email LiterallySpeakingBerlin@gmail.com.

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Performance and workshop/lecture with Tomomi Adachi, Andreas Dzialocha and Marcello Lussana

“AI in Experimental Improvisation” is a project by Tomomi Adachi, Andreas Dzialocha and Marcello Lussana. Based on artificial neuronal networks they developed a performance AI (artificial intelligence) named "Tomomibot" which "learns" from musical improvisations to interact live with a human voice improviser. The event consists of a performance by Tomomi Adachi and the AI performer plus a workshop/lecture in English by Andreas Dzialocha and Marcello Lussana.

Funded through the Initiative Neue Musik Berlin e.V.

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Trilingual (English, French, German) poetry, performance, récital concert and road movie with Sabine Venaruzzo and Benoît Berrou. Staging: Frédéric de Goldfiem. 

It all starts with a question: What is it worth? To be? To be here? What follows is a vast project of leaving "On the roads" across Europe, and more ambitiously, to make the world poetic. A reconquest of the territories with a red suitcase, boxing gloves and the word as a weapon. The audience is invited to become a witness, even an accomplice.

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Deutsch-englische Lesung: Premiere von "The Hour Between Dog and Wolf" mit Autorin Silke Scheuermann und Übersetzerin Lucy Jones.

A young woman who has been living abroad returns to her hometown of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Her sister Ines—a beautiful, impetuous painter—who still lives there, soon appears and promptly asks for financial help. But the returning sister knew this was coming—it is how their relationship has always worked. And this time, she’s determined that things will be different.
But our plans don’t always hold up to life’s surprises —and when the sister finds herself about to drift into an affair with Ines’s lover, the two women grow unexpectedly closer. "The Hour Between Dog and Wolf" is a tale of disorientation in a modern, rootless society that has become increasingly erratic and self-absorbed and powerful exploration of the difficulties of intimacy and addiction.

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Lesung in englischer Sprache, Moderation: Traci Kim

Literally Speaking is Berlin's fiction reading series that features local writers and the authors who inspire their stories. Each month, five writers share their original work, as well as an excerpt from an author of their choice that highlights the month’s theme. The excerpts aim to get everyone in Berlin’s literary community “on the same page.” It’s a way to see what’s catalyzing our local writers and bring us closer together through literature.

lineup TBA, submission deadline October 15

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Lesung in englischer Sprache mit Sarnath Banerjee und Dave Besseling

Berlin Writers' Workshop presents a reading event celebrating the work of Sarnath Banerjee and Dave Besseling, both dealing with experiences of the Indian society. Through his graphic fiction, Banerjee explores themes like masculinity, bureaucracy, rumour, class-system, religion and the uncanny. Whereas Dave Besseling has published the non-fiction books, Liquid Refuses to Ignite, a memoir, and Laid In India, a sociological reportage.

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Mati Shemoelof, Abdulkadir Musa und Dr. Hila Amit Abas im Gespräch mit Rainer Zimmer-Winkel. Musikalische Impulse durch Improvisation: Gidi Farhi und Dury de Bagh.

Please see english version below.

„Jahre über Jahre habe ich in Israel gebraucht, um zu verstehen, wie meine Familie aus den Geschichtsbüchern gelöscht und in der Gesellschaft marginalisiert worden ist.“ Der israelische Autor, Journalist und Aktivist Mati Shemoelof stellt seine Neuerscheinung …reißt die Mauern ein zwischen ‚uns‘ und ‚ihnen‘ vor, in der er biographische Reflexionen mit Lyrik kombiniert. Außerdem gibt es einen kleinen Vorgeschmack auf Shemoelofs ersten deutschen Gedichtband, der zur nächsten Leipziger Buchmesse im März beim AphorismA Verlag erscheinen wird. Rainer Zimmer-Winkel, Herausgeber und Geschäftsführer von AphorismA, wird den Abend einleiten. Musikalische Improvisationen von Gidi Farhi und Dury de Bagh begleiten die Lesung. Die Veranstaltung findet auf Deutsch und auf Englisch statt.

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Lesung in englischer Sprache mit Kathleen Heil und Abdulkadir Musa

Berlin Writers' Workshop presents a reading celebrating the work of Kathleen Heil and Abdulkadir Musa. Musa is known for his lyrics, which were published in the Kurdish language, and have been translated into German, Spanish, French, English, Polish and Arabic. As a dancer, Heil takes part in crossdisciplinary projects and she wants to investigate the invisible barriers between institutions of power and people in exile.

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Lesung in englischer Sprache, Moderation: Traci Kim

Literally Speaking is Berlin's fiction reading series that features local writers and the authors who inspire their stories. Each month, five writers share their original work, as well as an excerpt from an author of their choice that highlights the month’s theme. The excerpts aim to get everyone in Berlin’s literary community “on the same page.” It’s a way to see what’s catalyzing our local writers and bring us closer together through literature.

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An evening of physical poetry / Poesie-Konzert in englischer Sprache mit Shannon Sullivan, André Matov und Bernd Oezsevim

Language that hits like a fist, cuts like a razor blade, or exhibits the gentle tenderness of a slow caress. We press our nose up to the glass for a good look at a society balancing on the brink of (self-)destruction. The ancient myth of Icarus warns against excess. Our global culture has long since cracked the walls of moderation and melted them like wax. Overpopulation and isolation walk side by side, not speaking to each other.(more…)