Goethe-Institut New York | Current Writing Blog

The Leipzig Book Fair opened today with a bang -- at 4pm Leipzig time the Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse was awarded in three categories -- fiction, non-fiction and translation. A jury of seven editors and critics selected the winners from the 15 titles of the longlist, five in each category.

And the winners are:

For fiction: Georg Klein, for Roman unserer Kindheit (Rowohlt), the fantastic and at times frightening story of a group of children in a 1960s housing complex in southern Germany.

For non-fiction: Ulrich Raulff, for his Kreis ohne Meister. Stefan Georges Nachleben. Eine abgründige Geschichte (C. H. Beck).

For translation: Ulrich Blumenbach for Unendlicher Spass, his translation of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch).

Literaturport offers a selection of recorded readings from each of the 15 nominated titles.

"Publishing in Exile: German-Language Literature in the U.S. in the 1940s", an exhibit organized by the Goethe-Institut New York and the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, has travelled to Washington, DC, where it can be seen at the German Historical Institute through June.

Concentrating on five publishing houses established in the US by German and Austrian emigrants for the express purpose of continuing the rich tradition of a free German culture and literature, possible at that point in history only in exile, the exhibit includes facsimiles of documents, many of which have never been exhibited before.

The screening of Felix Moeller's documentary Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss (2009), currently at Film Forum in New York City, has garnered attention in the press for the 1940 Nazi propanganda film made by director Veit Harlan, Jud Süss, a piece of cinema that one of Harlan's sons calls "a murder weapon".

What is not mentioned in the articles and reviews is the work on which most people, including myself, assumed Harlan's Jud Süss is based: Lion Feuchtwanger's novel of the same name, published in 1925 and using as its model the historical figure Joseph Süß Oppenheimer. According to A New History of German Literature (Harvard U. Press, 2004), however, Harlan looked to an 1827 anti-Semitic novella (yet again of the same name) by Wilhelm Hauff, a member of the German Romantic school.

The Goethe-Institut Library offers works by Lion Feuchtwanger, including Jud Süss in German and other of his titles in German and English, as well as the biography, Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, genannt Jud Süss, by Hellmut Haasis. A New History of German Literature, edited by David E. Wellbery et al, can be found among our reference works

Readings
03/10 - 03/12/10
Goethe-Institut Chicago
150 N Michigan Ave., Suite 200
and other venues
German and English
Free and open to the public
Please RSVP to Lisa Lux:
+1 312 263 0472
lux@chicago.goethe.org

Each year the Goethe-Institut Chicago, the Consulate General of Switzerland in Chicago and the Consulate General of Austria in Chicago present Literaturlenz , an evening of readings in German and English. This year's authors, fresh from the Festival Neue Literatur in New York, are Maria Cecilia Barbetta from Germany, Lorenz Langenegger from Switzerland, and Olga Flor of Austria. Over three days time they will read in Chicago at the Goethe-Institut and at the University of Illinois, and also at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Each of these authors represents a unique voice in contemporary literature.

The Authors:
María Cecilia Barbetta, born in Buenos Aires in 1972, came to Berlin as an exchange student and stayed on in the city. Her first novel, Änderungsschneiderei Los Milagros, was written in German, her second language, and has received a number of literary honors, including the Aspekte-Preis (2008) and the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Preis (2009).

Lorenz Langenegger, born in 1980, lives in Zurich. His studies in theatre- and political science at the University of Bern led to productions at the Schaubühne Berlin and the Nationaltheater Mannheim. In 2006 he won the Schaubühne playwriting competition. His debut novel, Hier im Regen (Jung und Jung, 2009), won the 2009 Franz Tumler-Prize and the Literature Prize of Bern.

Writer Olga Flor, born in Vienna in 1968, today lives in Graz. Her first novel, Erlkönig, appeared in 2002; Talschluss (Paul Zsolnay Verlag, 2005) spent months on the ORF “Best Of” list. Flor’s many prizes and awards include participation in the Otto-Stoessl-Preis (2004) and the George-Saiko-Stipendium (2006). Her latest novel, Kollateralschaden, also published by Zsolnay, was nominated for the German Book Prize.

These three writers appear with Austrian literary critic Daniela Strigl, who will moderate.

For a full schedule of events, please visit the Goethe-Institut Chicago website.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?




Discussions and Readings
03/08/10
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street
New York, NY 10022
In English and German
Free admission, reservations requested
Tel.: +1 (212) 319 5300

Festival Neue Literatur concludes tonight with two separate discussions and readings at the Austrian Cultural Forum. First up are Austrians Julya Rabinowich and Olga Flor, along with Canadian-American author Rivka Galchen, addressing just when “A House is Not a Home”, the feeling of not quite being at home in the place where we live. Then Swiss author Perikles Monioudis and German-language Argentinean author María Cecilia Barbetta join Joseph O’Neill from 8 to 10pm for “Up, Up and Away”, providing their takes on the colorful and dark sides of cultural transfer. Festival Neue Literatur has been curated by Daniela Strigl and Klaus Nuechtern.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Readings
03/07/10
6-8:00pm
Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd St./Bowery
New York, NY 10003
Free
+ 1 (212) 439-8700

Festival Neue Literature holds its second event this evening, with readings by authors from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, along with New York-based authors, Rivka Galchen, John Wray and Joseph O'Neill.

Speaking to the theme "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", Maria Cecilia Barbetta and Martin Becker (Germany), Olga Flor and Julya Rabinowich (Austria) and Lorenz Langenegger and Perikles Monioudis (Switzerland) give us their takes on literary mobility, with characters going voluntarily, going involuntarily and just plain staying put.

Join us after the reading for a glass of wine and conversation with this group of exciting, up-and-coming writers.

In this first annual Festival Neue Literatur, a number of the best up-and-coming authors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland meet three of their well-established English-language colleagues in New York for two days of discussions and readings at three New York venues.

Join Maria Cecilia Barbetta (GER), Martin Becker (GER), Olga Flor (AUS), Lorenz Langenegger (CH), Perikles Monioudis (CH), Rivka Galchen (US), Joseph O’Neill (US), Julya Rabonowich (AUS) and John Wray (US) for Should I Stay or Should I Go?, exploring modes of mobility in contemporary fiction.

For a full schedule of events, please visit our Festival Neue Literatur page.

Festival Neue Literatur is a joint project of the Goethe-Institut New York, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York, Deutsches Haus NYU, the German Book Office and the German Consulate General New York.