LITERARY FESTIVAL | FESTIVAL NEUE LITERATUR 2018
Established in 2009 as a collaborative project of New York’s leading German-language cultural institutions, Festival Neue Literatur (FNL) presents the newest and most exciting voices in German-language literature. Chaired by the US-Austrian writer John Wray, author of The Right Hand of Sleep, (Knopf, 2001), Canaan’s Tongue (2005), Lowboy (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2008), and The Lost Time Accidents (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2016), this year’s participants include Ursula Fricker and Meral Kureyshi from Switzerland, Fatma Aydemir and Philipp Winkler from Germany as well as Graz-based German-Iranian author Nava Ebrahimi (her novel Sechzehn Wörter published by btb has won the Austrian book Prize 2017 for the best debut) and Robert Prosser whose bestseller Phantome published by Ullstein was longlisted for the German Book Prize 2017.
The theme of the 2018 festival, curated by Peter Blackstock, senior editor at Grove Atlantic,is “INSIDER | OUTSIDER.” The books featured explore questions of identity and belonging in a fracturing Europe and beyond, using race, religion, immigration status, politics, and even football hooliganism as lenses to explore contemporary society and the recent past.
EVENTS
Words With Writers
Friday, March 23 at 7:00 PM
Goethe-Institut New York
New York’s brightest students take on FNL authors in a lightning round of literary speed-dating. Featuring all six German-language authors and moderated by festival curator Peter Blackstock, the senior editor at Grove Atlantic. >> Details
Inside Translation | Outside Ourselves: Connecting Our Worlds
Saturday, March 24 at 2:00 PM
Goethe-Institut New York
An intimate conversation about literature in translation with NYC’s celebrated literary editors, translators, and writers, who will pay homage to works in translation that have enlarged our lives and countered literary, political, and cultural isolationism. >> Details
The Lives of Others: Stories from Outside Our Bubble
Saturday, March 24 at 6:00 PM
powerHouse Books
What does it mean to be marginalized – and who decides where the supposed center is in a shifting world? In this panel we discuss politics, power, society, ethnicity, and family, asking questions about how we treat those different from us and how society acts towards its most vulnerable members. >> Details
The Author’s Voice
Sunday, March 25 at 2:00 PM
Deutsches Haus at NYU
The six German-language authors of Festival Neue Literatur pair up with New York City actors to give a sampling from their work, providing a taste of new writing from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. >> Details
We Are Family: Blood-Brothers and Strong Mothers
Sunday, March 25 at 6:00 PM
McNally Jackson Books
Tradition, brotherhood, and rebellion – this panel will explore these themes and more, tracing stories from Iran to Kosovo to Hannover to China and celebrating how literature can provide us with an extended family that is only limited by the size of our bookshelf. >> Details
All FNL events are free of charge, though RSVPs are required.
For more information, please visit >> festivalneueliteratur.org