forum: authors

The forum: authors is a literary event . As an integral part of the Munich Literature Festival , it is curated by writers that change every year and designed at their own discretion, which means that she or he chooses a motto, the event formats and the authors, artists and scientists who are invited to Munich.

2010 Ilija Trojanow with "local: global"

Ilija Trojanow curated the first forum: authors from November 17th to 25th, 2010. As a “collector of the world”, he focused on the cosmopolitan, the polyphony and multilingualism in literature: under the motto “local: global”, the German writer with Bulgarian roots invited around 60 representatives of contemporary world literature to various events.

In the “Doppelter Boden” series, two writers discussed current (literary) topics. The guests included Umberto Eco , Herta Müller , Juli Zeh , Ferdinand von Schirach and Rafael Chirbes .

Under the motto “East is south of west”, authors such as Sherko Fatah , John Wray , German Sadulajew, László Krasznahorkai , Joseph Boyden and Karl-Markus Gauß showed how global literature understands the world as a whole and overcomes geographical borders.

With Marica Bodrožić , Terézia Mora , Ilma Rakusa , José FA Oliver and Tzveta Sofronieva, “Chamissos Charme” presented five Adelbert von Chamisso Prize winners, each of whom read together with an author from their country of origin. For example, Terézia Mora met Péter Esterházy , whose work she partially translated into German herself.

“Pointed and skewered” was the title of three evenings in the Munich Volkstheater , on which satirists, cabaret artists and word artists such as Ralf König , Christoph Süß , Ben Lewis, Thomas Gsella and Pedro Lenz performed.

Other event formats were “A story that goes on” (two four-hour walks through Munich with five or six writers reading from their works at selected stations), “Word-Raga” (an eleven-hour real-time reading), the symposium “A world canon in the age globalization ”and the“ literature festival ”.

2011 Matthias Politycki with "The World in German"

The author Matthias Politycki relied on the polyphony and cosmopolitanism of contemporary German-language literature and from November 11th to 18th, 2011, under the motto “The World in German” with over 50 writers, he took a look at literature in this country.

In the “Backstage” program, 20 upper-level high school grades each invited one writer from the forum: authors to participate in a dialogue at their school in Munich.

In the “Klartext” series, up to ten writers and journalists discussed contemporary German literature with the Germanists from Munich's LMU . The starting point of the discussion were five-minute statements from two participants, which were determined by lot.

At the prose readings, ten author duos presented their works in the Literaturhaus Munich and discussed a set motto such as “Escape to a foreign country” or “Family riddle”. Urs Widmer , Feridun Zaimoglu , Sibylle Lewitscharoff , Kathrin Schmidt and Michael Stavarič were guests . Paul Nizon was to be seen in a solo appearance in the Münchner Kammerspiele.

During the “Saturday Afternoon Declaration”, eight authors debated in four rounds of discussion questions such as “Have you experienced it all yourself?”, “Made in Germany - a discontinued model?” And other fundamental or topical questions about contemporary literature. On the podium were Annette Pehnt , Martin Mosebach and Dagmar Leupold , among others .

In the four-hour “lyric lounge” ten lyric poets met in unequal pairs on the stage of the Club Ampere. For example FW Bernstein and Ulrike Almut Sandig , Nora Bossong and Steffen Jacobs .

After the readings, a different Munich publisher invited to the “Salon of Living Writers” in the Brasserie OskarMaria in the Literaturhaus Munich every evening.

At the final evening "How do you go on?" In the Munich Volkstheater, Jan Brandt , Kirsten Fuchs , Odile Kennel and Simon Urban spoke about topics, forms, language and presented their debuts.

2012 Thea Dorn with "Out into the Unknown!"

Under the motto “Out into the Unknown”, the writer and presenter Thea Dorn called from November 15 to 24, 2012, “to rediscover life for what it has remained at its core: an unpredictable, partly exhilarating, partly painful one Adventure".

Martin Walser , Christoph Ransmayr , AL Kennedy , Marie Pohl , Karen Duve , Florian Weber , Vladimir Sorokin , Christian Kracht and Jenny Erpenbeck read it .

During “The Long Night of the Night” in the Munich Volkstheater, Franz Wittenbrink presented a recital specially designed for forum: authors; Andreas Fröhlich read from Walter Moers ' Käpt'n Blaubär ; Elisabeth Bronfen , John Burnside , Albert Ostermaier and Christiane Rösinger presented texts and poetry over the night.

The theologian Petra Bahr , the philosophers Rüdiger Safranski and Peter Sloterdijk and the social psychologist Harald Welzer discussed at the symposium “Beyond Security?” Moderated by Thea Dorn ; the corresponding podium “Beyond Reality?” was occupied by the authors Clemens J. Setz , Felicitas Hoppe , John Burnside and Sibylle Lewitscharoff .

The event ended with an evening in Munich's Erlöserkirche on the subject of “What is God?” With Kurt Flasch and Wolfgang Rihm .

2013 Dagmar Leupold with “Stadt Land Fluss. Stories from the Present "

The Munich writer Dagmar Leupold invited over 50 international authors, artists, architects, journalists and scientists to her forum: autoren from November 7th to 16th, 2013 . Under the motto “City Country River. Stories from the Present ”they explored different real and fictional worlds in readings, conversations and discussions. Henning Mankell , Teju Cole , Cees Nooteboom , Jeet Thayil, Assaf Gavron , Alain Mabanckou , Erri De Luca and Navid Kermani were also guests .

The writers Jurij Andruchowytsch , Julia Schoch and Ingo Schulze spoke in a panel discussion about "Scope of Literature", the architects Diébédo Francis Kéré and Amandus Sattler and the architecture journalists Gerhard Matzig and Andreas Denk about "Scope of everyday life".

At the Klassikermatinee in the Max-Joseph-Saal of the Munich Residenz, Wiebke Puls , Fridolin Schley , Uwe Timm , Udo Wachtveitl and Axel Milberg read from famous urban and provincial novels of classical modernism.

The poetry evenings with titles such as “Down on the River” or “Poetic Waterworks” combined texts with music. The guests included Serhij Zhadan , Werwolf Sutra, Nico Bleutge , Anja Utler , Jeffrey Yang, marmar cuisine, Josef Brustmann , Robin Robertson, Jan Wagner , Christos Ikonomou and Nino Vetri .

2014 Clemens Meyer with "In danger and greatest need, the middle path brings death"

The Leipzig author Clemens Meyer staged eight evenings from November 20 to 27, 2014, in which he combined literature, visual arts, theater, film and music. The central venue of the forum: autoren 2014 was the Mixed Munich Arts (MMA) in a former heating power plant in the middle of Munich.

Here the opening evening took place in the spirit of Louis-Ferdinand Céline , Jean Genet , Hubert Fichte and Jörg Fauser - with guests such as Ulrich Peltzer , Aurel Manthei , Franz Dobler and the visual artist Kerstin Schiefner. Jonathan Meese celebrated himself and the "dictatorship of art". The Leipzig poet Andreas Reimann , the Danish author and sound artist Morten Søndergaard and his drummer Klaus Q Hedegaard Nielsen played a poetry evening .

In the Münchner Kammerspiele , Clemens Meyer showed the cut-up play “Danton or Death in the Jungle Camp”, which he developed and moderated. The writer Jürgen Ploog and the historian Thomas Kuczynski were also on stage . The writers Sten Nadolny and Thomas Rosenlöcher met in a “Sunday salong”; and the filmmaker Roland Klick showed excerpts from his life's work in the city cinemas.

2015 Albert Ostermaier with "front: text"

The Munich writer Albert Ostermaier focused on committed and political literature from November 18 to 27, 2015. The idea and goal of his motto "front: text" was to enter into dialogue with refugees and to convey their stories anew through texts and images. International guests from literature, art and politics read, talked about their experiences of flight and exile and discussed asylum policy. The 25 or so events took place at various locations in Munich.

Salman Rushdie performed in the Cuvilliés-Theater , Karim Miské in the Munich Volkstheater , Jenny Erpenbeck in the Club Milla, Zeruya Shalev in the Marstall Munich , Ilija Trojanow in the Ampere in the Muffatwerk , Scholastique Mukasonga in the Import Export Kantine, Ala al-Aswani and Najem Wali in the State Museum of Egyptian Art .

During the “Authors' Trips ”, Sandra Hoffmann , Nuran David Calis , Davide Enia and Vyacheslav Kupriyanov read texts about trips to hot spots such as Lampedusa or the Turkish-Syrian border region that were made especially for “front: text”.

In cooperation with Refugio Munich and Allitera Verlag , the anthology “The Hope in Your Luggage” was created, for which Munich authors wrote down the experiences of refugees. These were presented in the Lyrik Kabinett in the series “Escape Stories” .

The three-part symposium “front: text: context” explored the scope for action and scope within the refugee issue, with Martin Roth , Markus Kaim , Mekonnen Mesghena and Nizaqete Bislimi taking part.

Dalibor Marković, Sulaiman Masomi , Jacinta Nandi and Temye Tesfu performed on the poetry evening “We are Slamily” put together by Bas Böttcher in the Muffathalle in the Muffatwerk . At “Heimat International”, six young people presented their own texts that were created in the workshop led by Pierre Jarawan; at “Football is our life” Albert Ostermaier played football under the eyes of Felix Magath with members of the national team of authors and a selection of the intercultural street football league Bunt Kickt gut . And Herbert Grönemeyer came as a surprise guest to the “front: text: finale” in the Gabanyi bar .

2016 Elke Schmitter with "one word gives the other"

Under the motto “one word gives the other” the journalist and writer Elke Schmitter explored the possibilities and limits of language from November 10 to 19, 2016 together with international guests from literature, poetry, music, theater, science and journalism. The lectures, discussions, readings, chants, performances and concerts took place partly in the Literaturhaus Munich and partly in other locations.

The Nobel Prize winners Swetlana Alexijewitsch and Herta Müller met for the first time in the large auditorium of the Ludwig Maximilians University . Carolin Emcke appeared in the Münchner Kammerspiele , Lena Herzog presented her artistic film project “Last Whispers” in Museum Fünf Kontektiven, a musical poetry evening in honor of Peter Rühmkorf took place at Einstein Kultur and one for Leonid Aronson in the Lyrik Kabinett . Paul Murray read at Ampere, and Raoul Schrott and Katja Lange-Müller were guests at the Literaturhaus.

The director and writer Judith Kuckart and the dramaturge Sibille Hüholt and three blind women developed the staged text collage “Red is like a wooden box feels”, which she and Brigitte Hobmeier premiered at the Munich Kammerspiele.

The two-part symposium “Let's talk about languages” at the Literaturhaus Munich dealt with the myth of mother tongue, its political power and our age of written form. Jochen Hörisch , Jürgen Trabant , Karl Freller , Ulrike Guérot and Senthuran Varatharajah discussed among others .

The Translators' Day took place in Munich for the first time in cooperation with the German Translation Fund: Alida Bremer , Frank Günther , Gunhild Kübler , Christian Hansen and Stefan Weidner talked about (non-) understanding at “Kannitverstan” .

On three evenings there was a “bench bar” in the Hofspielhaus. Poets such as Najet Adouani , Enoh Meyomesse , Jan Wagner , Björn Kuhligk , Michael Krüger , Joachim Sartorius , Ulrike Draesner appeared here , alternating with musicians and performance artists, including Hinemoana Baker , Maud Vanhauwaert, Cornelia Zink and Ines Honsel .

2017 Doris Dörrie with “Alles Echt. All fiction "

The program developed by the Munich filmmaker and author Doris Dörrie together with the Literaturhaus München shed light on the game with imagination and reality in the globally networked world: From November 16 to 24, 2017, international guests presented their literary, cinematic and / or scientific examination of origin and one's own self, with the invented and the real.

Each evening had its own theme, e.g. B. “The fragmented self” “Documentary or poetry”, “Do you still remember?” Or “Everything was invented?” And combined different event formats. Guests in the reading program included Deborah Feldman , Elena Lappin , Ariel Levy , Sven Regener , Arno Frank , Jakob Hein , Ijoma Mangold , Catherine Millet , Alina Herbing , Daniel Schreiber , Amy Liptrot , Dmitrij Kapitelman , Frank Witzel and Ingo Schulze .

At the same time, the “Reading Films” series ran at the Munich University of Television and Film, with documentary screenings and subsequent discussions with Florian Burkhardt , Uli Oesterle and others. Doris Dörrie showed an under Masterclass their three films Enlightenment Guaranteed , Cherry Blossoms - Hanami , greetings from Fukushima and talked about their style; Maya Reichert introduced the technique of film reading in a workshop at the Literaturhaus.

At a two-part symposium, Kai Strittmatter , Michael Butter and Klaus Theweleit spoke and discussed about “Lies and Fiction” and Martin Korte , Beate Stolte , Monika Betzler and Werner Siefer about “Lies in Memory”. FC Delius and Verena Kast gave lectures on the topic afterwards.

An expert panel on podcasts discussed the current status of serial storytelling in Germany, and at the graphic novel evening “Mein Ich in Bilder” Barbara Yelin , Paco Roca and Hamid Sulaiman presented their artistic works and talked about their working methods.

Isolation Berlin , La Triviata, Dheema as well as Polly Lapkovskaja and Jovana Reisinger performed in the late program in the Panoptikum bar, which was set up especially for the Munich Literature Festival .

2018 Jan Wagner with “Beautiful Babel. European readings "

In his program, which took place from November 14 to 23, 2018, the poet Jan Wagner focused on the linguistic diversity of the European continent - taking this in a geographical and cultural sense and including Ukraine and Russia. With a special focus on authors from the United Kingdom , this forum: authors turned out to be exceptionally political in view of the Brexit planned for March 2019 .

At the beginning, Aris Fioretos , Navid Kermani and Ilma Rakusa discussed the potential and problems of Europe with Jan Wagner in the Literaturhaus in Munich . At two symposia, David Constantine , Hugo Hamilton , Lavinia Greenlaw, Sujata Bhatt, Jo Shapcott and other guests commented on the provocative question “The beautiful islands?” - and then read their own texts under the motto “The beautiful islands!”.

Contemporary poets such as Aleš Šteger , Serhij Zhadan , Els Moors , Valzhyna Mort , Morten Søndergaard , Tadeusz Dąbrowski , Georgi Gospodinov , Kinga Tóth , Nikola Madzirovenkage, Kateřina Tóth , Nikola Madzirovenkage, read in three great nights of poetry in the Marstall Munich , Lyrik Kabinett and Munich Volkstheater Bela Cherutishvili, Luljeta Lleshanaku and Agnė Žagrakalytė of their original works. At “Little Babel”, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill , Róža Domašcyna , Roberta Dapunt, Marlene Schuen and Natalie Plöger brought lesser-known languages ​​such as Ladin, Sorbian and Irish Gaelic to the fore in the Milla Club.

"How do you cross? From literature to film "asked Doris Dörrie in the University of Television and Film Munich British author Edward St Aubyn and the German director Edward Berger , who in the miniseries Patrick Melrose St. Aubyns five-part autobiographical novel inspired series filmed.

“How do you translate?” Was about the challenges and beauties of literature and translation. From language to language ”with AL Kennedy , John Burnside , Ingo Herzke and Iain Galbraith.

An evening was "continuing to write" dedicated to the portal for literature and music from crisis areas: Ramy Al-Asheq, Lina Atfah, Aref Hamza , Noor Kanj, Svenja Leiber and the co-initiator Annika Reich spoke to Club Ampere with Alex Rühle about the concept and read own texts.

In a temporary schnapps bar initiated by Christoph Keller in the Luitpoldblock , literature, music and schnapps entered into dialogue in the nightly series “Séances with substances”: In addition to some of the festival guests mentioned above, Michael Krüger , Werner von Koppenfels and Michael Walter were guests .

2019 Ingo Schulze with “Exercises in Paradise. Questions to the world after 1989 "

From November 14 to 23, 2019, the writer Ingo Schulze examined the international consequences of the political upheaval thirty years ago. Over 40 authors from all over the world read and discussed in 31 events.

In the series “Questions to the world after 89”, two guests of different nationalities each told what changes and consequences they associated with the “upheaval of 1989”. The basis for the encounters was provided by texts that the participants had written specifically for this purpose. The conversation here included Frank Witzel and Dževad Karahasan , Lukas Bärfuss and César Rendueles , Marcial Gala and Aleš Šteger , Yitzhak Laor and Vladimir Sorokin , Xiao Xiao and Wolfgang Kubin . In a further row, the authors met other people and read from their current works.

At a four-part symposium, Ethel Matala de Mazza , Judith Schalansky and Frank Witzel discussed ideas of “paradise”. When Daniela Dahn , Manja Präkels and Mark Terkessidis it came to racism and nationalism . Bénédicte Savoy , Fiston Mwanza Mujila, and Stephan Lessenich examined relations with colonialism , and Joseph Vogl , Silke van Dyk, and Philipp Ther considered changing ownership.

At the “Books for Future” anniversary party, Ingo Schulze and the former forum: authors curators Doris Dörrie , Elke Schmitter , Albert Ostermaier , Dagmar Leupold and Matthias Politycki answered the question in short readings and performances: “Why read?” Bas were also guests Böttcher , Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Konnexion Balkon.

Volker Braun read in a Sunday matinee, Marion Brasch and Andreas Keller dedicated a scenic evening to Thomas Brasch , and Jürgen Böttcher and Andreas Goldstein showed their documentaries " The Secretary " and "The Functionary".

At the closing event “Nothing new in the West? Questions to Munich after 1989 ”read and discussed Fridolin Schley , Katja Huber , Dagmar Leupold and Tilman Spengler as well as five selected readers of the evening newspaper about their personal impressions of the upheaval in 1989.

With “Unterwegs in München”, Ingo Schulze addressed people who would otherwise find it difficult to take part in the literature festival: In the afternoons, selected authors read in the women's section of the Stadelheim prison , the Münchenstift and on a guided tour of the street newspaper BISS .

2020 canceled

The literary festival “2020 - From Life in the Future” with Nora Gomringer as curator, announced for November 11th to 29th, 2020, was canceled in July 2020 due to the corona pandemic .

Web links

• Website of the Munich Literature Festival. In: literaturfest-muenchen.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The world collector is the title of a novel by Ilija Trojanow.
2. ↑ The program of the 2010 Literature Festival (PDF; 4.9 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
3. ↑ The program of the 2011 Literature Festival ( Memento from February 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 6.7 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on January 4, 2019.
4. ↑ The program of the Munich Literature Festival 2012. (PDF; 3.5 MB) p. 7. In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
5. ^ The program of the Munich Literature Festival 2012. (PDF; 3.5 MB) p. 70. In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
6. ↑ The program of the 2013 Literature Festival. (PDF; 4.0 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
7. ↑ The program of the literature festival 2014. (PDF; 4.2 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
8. ↑ The program of the 2015 Literature Festival (PDF; 4.7 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 14, 2020.
9. ↑ Last lap. In: Süddeutsche.de , November 29, 2015, accessed on January 4, 2019.
10. ↑ The program of the 2016 Literature Festival (PDF; 5.0 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
11. ↑ The program of the 2017 Literature Festival (PDF; 2.3 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
12. ↑ The program of the 2018 Literature Festival (PDF; 3.3 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
13. ↑ The program of the 2019 Literature Festival (PDF; 3.4 MB) In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, accessed on February 13, 2020.
14. ↑ Press releases on the 10th Munich Literature Festival. In: literaturfest-muenchen.de/presse. Retrieved November 29, 2019 . 
15. ↑ rejection. In 2020 there is unfortunately no literature festival in Munich. In: literaturfest-muenchen.de, July 27, 2020, accessed on July 27, 2020.