22. international literature festival berlin

07.09.2022 – 17.09.2022
With Amir Hassan Cheheltan, Anuk Arudpragasam, David van Reybrouck, Eugene Ostashevsky, Faruk Šehić, Jay Bernard, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Liao Yiwu, Maaza Mengiste, Madame Nielsen, Margaret Atwood, Taqi Akhlaqi, Volha Hapeyeva

The 22nd international literature festival berlin opens on September 7. On offer are ten days of readings, discussions, and encounters with some of the most important voices in international contemporary literature, including many current fellows and alumni of the Artists-in-Berlin Program. This year’s opening address will be presented by author, historian, and journalist David Van Reybrouck, 2016 fellow. In his talk, he will examine the perpetuation of colonial consciousness into the future and what must be done to combat this. Other featured festival program alumni include Margaret Atwood (1984), Amir Hassan Cheheltan (2009), Liao Yiwu (2012), Eugene Ostashevsky (2013), and Madame Nielsen (2019).

In poetry nights, workshop discussions, and readings, current fellows of the artists’ program will explore urgent themes of the past and present: Taqi Akhlaqi’s stories deal with his flight from Afghanistan and life in exile. Anuk Arudpragasam will present Nach Norden, the German translation of his latest novel. Jay Bernard’s collection of poems, Surge, is dedicated to the New Cross Fire in London in 1981 and its traumatic aftermath. Volha Hapeyeva focuses on post-Soviet childhood experiences. In the recently published German edition of her novel, Die erste Frau, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi reinterprets Ugandan fairy tales from a feminist perspective. In Project 3541, Maaza Mengiste presents a documentary-literary remembrance project on the Abyssinian War. Faruk Šehić continues his storytelling about the trauma of war and the horror of peace in Uhrwerksgeschichten.

ALL EVENTS WITH CURRENT FELLOWS

Thursday, 08.09.2022, 9 pm
Project 3541
With Maaza Mengiste
Moderation: Zara Rahman
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Friday, 09.09.2022, 6 pm
The Naked Don’t Fear the Water
Matthieu Aikins and Taqi Akhlaqi on flight from Afghanistan
Moderation: Stefan Weidner
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Saturday, 10.09.2022, 8 pm
Postsoviet Cosmopolis – Poetry Night
With Semjon Hanin, Volha Hapeyeva, Eugenijus Ališanka
Moderation: Karolina Golimowska
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Sunday, 11.09.2022, 4 pm
Postsoviet Cosmopolis – Constructing Postsoviet Childhood
With Volha Hapeyeva and Lea Ypi
Moderation: Tuesday Bhambry
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin

Monday, 12.09.2022, 9 pm
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi reads from The First Woman
Moderation: Alexandra Antwi-Boasiako
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Tuesday, 13.09.2022, 7:30 pm
Anuk Arudpragasam reads from A Passage North
Moderation: Tuesday Bhambry
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Wednesday, 14.09.2022, 9 pm
Faruk Šehić reads from Clockwork Stories
Moderation: Vivian Perkovic
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Friday, 16.09.2022, 7:30 pm
Poetry Night
With Margaret Atwood, Paul Muldoon, Haris Vlavianos, Jay Bernard
Moderation: Maren Jäger
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

ALL EVENTS WITH ALUMNI

Wednesday, 07.09.2022, 6 pm
Opening of the 22nd ilb – David Van Reybrouck: The Colonization of the Future
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Friday, 09.09.2022, 8 pm
Madame Nielsen liest aus Lamento
Moderation: Alexander Lehnert
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Sunday, 11.09.2022, 8 pm
Postsoviet Cosmopolis – Speaking in Many Tongues: Translingual Poetry
With Semyon Hanin and Eugene Ostahevsky
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin

Monday, 12. September, 6 pm
Amir Hassan Cheheltan reads from A Love in Kairo
Moderation: Barbara Wahlster
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Thursday, 15.09.2022, 7 pm
Margaret Atwood and Claudia Rankine: Burning Questions
Haus der Berliner Festspiele

Thursday, 29.09.2022, 8 pm
Wuhan
With Herta Müller, Liao Yiwu and Volker Stanzel
Schaubühne Berlin