ACFNY RECOMMENDS | ESTHER DISCHEREIT

“About Nehmat, a journalist, who at 67 years old stepped into a rubber dingy and cannot swim; about Gh., whose boyfriend was killed and who studies biochemistry, about Noni and Ch., who hand out tea to the waiting crowd; Rahel, who expanded her apartment and the neighbor, who wished death upon Angela Merkel. And about how they all unite in the American Memorial Library in Berlin.

Esther Dischereit has published fiction, poetry, and essays, as well as plays for radio and the stage. In 2009, she received the Erich Fried Prize. Dischereit’s work reflects the cultural landscape of post-Holocaust Germany, most recently in Vor den Hohen Feiertagen gab es ein Flüstern und Rascheln im Haus (Before the High Holy Days the House was Full of Whisperings and Rustlings, 2009), the book adaptation of a permanent sound-installation Holocaust memorial. In 2014, she published the book and libretto Klagelieder: Blumen für Otello. Über die Verbrechen von Jena. (Lamentations: Flowers for Otello. On the Crimes of Jena). They are dedicated to the victims and their families of a series of racist killings perpetrated in Germany between 2000 to 2007. This work was followed by the sound installation and book The Child with the Big Face, Museumsquartier Vienna in August 2014. She is a Professor of Language Arts at the University of the Applied Arts in Vienna, and was the Max Kade German Writer in Residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 2013.

http://deutscheshaus.as.nyu.edu/object/io_1457964814503.html