Fiction and Narrative Tension

04.03.2021 / 19:00
With Samanta Schweblin

Samanta Schweblin, born in Buenos Aires in 1978, is considered one of the most distinguished voices in contemporary Argentine literature. She was an Artists-in-Berlin Program fellow in 2012–13 and currently holds the Samuel Fischer Visiting Professorship for Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin.

In an online event on March 4, Schweblin will discuss with Moritz Lünenborg her current novel ‘Hundert Augen’ (published by Suhrkamp in August 2020), the importance of opening sentences, the film adaptation of her novel Das Gift, her experiences as Fischer Visiting Professor and her relationship with Berlin.

Schweblin received an award in Argentina in 2001 for her first collection of short stories, ‘El núcleo del disturbio’. This was followed by numerous prizes for her work, now comprising three short story collections and two novels, and her books have been translated into twenty-five languages. She has lived and worked in Berlin since her DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Program residency. Her current novel, ‘Kentukis’ (German edition: ‘Hundert Augen’, published by Suhrkamp in August), was longlisted for last year’s International Booker Prize. In all of her books, the ambiguity of everyday life occupies a central role. Schweblin plays with the discrepancy between reality and her protagonists’ imagination, without resorting to surrealistic or fantastical elements.

Moritz Lünenborg lives and works as a radio journalist in Magdeburg and Leipzig. His short story ‘Magdeburg y nada’ recently appeared in the Mexican journal ‘Salvaje literatura y arte’.

The discussion is held in Spanish.

Watch here on YouTube. (available from March 4th, 7 p.m.)

Photo: Stefan Klüter