Active members of Berlin’s literary scene share their personal monthly highlights and tell us which literary events they are looking forward to. Katy Derbyshire makes the start.
Oh my, so many exciting events in January! Here are my five top picks:
If you’re very quick you can join the Curious Fox Book Club at one of Berlin’s loveliest English bookshops. This Thursday, 18 Jan they’re talking about Thomas Brussig’s At the Short End of the Sonnenallee, translated by Jenny Watson and Jonathan Franzen.
A fun format: Vice Versa, featuring Deniz Utlu and Necati Öziri reading from and chatting to each other about their novels Vaters Meer and Vatermal. I wonder what they’ll talk about? 24 Jan at the Literaturforum im Brechthaus.
For an evening of earthly delights, head to the Roter Salon on 25 Jan, where the Velvet Voice Club „teases out the critical potential of pleasure precisely in its carnality and immediacy” – with a poetry-reading pole-dancing performance by Camila Carlota and Malina Ricci from the Berlin Stripper Collective. Mainly in English!
Check out Haus am Lützowplatz on 27 Jan to join another kind of club: Daniela Dröscher talks about The Bad Mother (in German I assume) with Sonja Longolius from LiBe.
And what could be better than the launch of Lautsprache’s first anthology of German sign language poetry? In spoken German and German sign language at Haus für Poesie on 28 Jan.
Katy Derbyshire translates contemporary German writers and co-hosts Berlin’s Dead Ladies Show. She’s also an occasional publisher at V&Q Books. Photo © Nane Diehl