Goethe-Institut Australien | Bookmarks | Literature Live

Jenny Erpenbeck was born in the former GDR to a family of storytellers and tried to do something different, studying drama and working as stage director. In 1999 she released her first book and realized that being a writer was a little more family friendly. In March 2012, Jenny was a guest at the Adelaide Writers Festival and the Goethe-Institut Australia. Interviewed by Trudi Latour (SBS German Radio), Jenny discusses her latest book 'Visitation' ('Heimsuchung'). The German title has two meanings, to search for a home or to lose a home and be haunted by its memories. The book deals with 100 years of German history by exploring the lives of the changing inhabitants of a house in Brandenburg as they live though the Nazi regime and the conflict between East and West Germany.

Zafer Senocak is one of the leading voices in the debates of multiculturalism, national and cultural identity in Europe. Born in Ankara, but living in Germany since his early childhood, his knowledge and empathy for both the Western and the Islamic world derives from his own experiences in between two worlds. In his work as well as in this present interview, he questions the historical background of migration to Germany, the ongoing attempts to integrate those migrants into society, the implications of Islamic fundamentalism on persistent racism and the possibility of a national entity and unity in Germany. The author was invited to the Sydney Writers Festival in May 2011 and engaged in several discussions about migration and multiculturalism in Europe and the Islamic world.

No other German artist and theater director has been as active as Christoph Schlingensief in earning the term "political" for his work. As society's concept of the political became increasingly arbitrary and theatrical, Schlingensief responded with a rather unusual cure: he fought against the haziness of politics by totally confusing supposed unambiguities, by using reality as the main platform for his work and by working with handicapped or amateur actors. The theatre cannot function without reality

The work of German artist Christoph Schlingensief spanned a diverse range of fields, including film, theatre, activism, television and opera. In over two decades, Schlingensief produced a large body of politically engaged work that challenged audiences to think critically and creatively about a broad range of socio-political issues and debates. This book

The celebration of the 200th anniversary of the death of Heinrich von Kleist has started in Sydney with a University of Sydney Symposium on the work and actuality of Heinrich von Kleist. 40 international Kleist experts travelled to Sydney; among them German author Dagmar Leupold whose latest novel creates an unlikely and poetic encounter between Heinrich von Kleist and Ulrike Meinhof. Listen to the first part of the interview with Dagmar Leupold and Yixu L

The celebration of the 200th anniversary of the death of Heinrich von Kleist has started in Sydney with a University of Sydney Symposium on the work and actuality of Heinrich von Kleist. 40 international Kleist experts travelled to Sydney; among them German author Dagmar Leupold whose latest novel creates an unlikely and poetic encounter between Heinrich von Kleist and Ulrike Meinhof. Listen to the first part of the interview with Dagmar Leupold and Yixu L

Marion D

Ilija Trojanow is an international bestselling author and has visited Australia as a guest of the Goethe-Institut and the Adelaide Writers Week 2010. In his conversation with Trudi Latour he discusses his famous novel "The Collector of Worlds", which is build around the real life character Sir Richard Burton who travelled the world, learning indigenous languages and foreign cultures. We hear about the question of cultural identity and literature.

Erica Fischer, guest of this year

Renowned German writer Antje R

Award-winning author Sa

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Listen to the SBS-interview with Andrea Maria Schenkel who won several literature awards for both her first novel "The Murder Farm" (Tann

Listen to Australian Writer Vanessa Berry, just returned from her residence in Leipzig and Berlin. Posted to Germany through the Goethe-Institut she had the chance to discover different German stories and situations

reading at the Goethe-Institut Australia, Sydney Wibke Bruhns, well known journalist, writer and TV-presenter was guest of the 2008 Sydney Writers's Festival. Her bestselling book "Meines Vaters Land" has been published in English translation by Random House as "My Father's Country". The extraordinary story of her family over three generations has been described as "a fascinating mix of private chronicle, contemporary reporting, and personal search for identity".

Uwe Timm

Zoran Drvenkar was born in Croatia in 1967 and moved to Berlin at the age of three. His novels, poems, plays and short stories, many of them for children, have won him numerous awards. After his thriller

German bestseller author Andrea Maria Schenkel reads from her unusual crime story "The Murder Farm". Listen as she talks about her insights and inspirations.

Stefan Klein was guest at the Perth Writers Festival 2008. He talked to author Stephanie Dowrick.

Galsan Tschinag is the author of more than thirty books, a shaman, a singer and the chief of the Tuvan people in Mongolia. He was born in the early 1940s in the high mountains of Mongolia; from 1962 until 1968 he studied at the University of Leipzig in Eastern Germany, where he adopted German as his written language. His books, amongst them the highly successful novel

Internationally renowned author Ilija Trojanow is a man of the globalised world. Born in Bulgaria, he grew up in South-Africa, travelled through India and the Orient and lives now in Europe. Throughout all this time his language of literature remained German. Ilija Trojanow was a guest of the Adelaide Writers

Stefan Aust, a renowned German author and journalist talks to Trudi Latour from SBS German Radio about his work on