Türkiye, what’s up?
Ebru Taşdemir in conversation with author and journalist Irfan Aktan (Ankara) and Deniz Yücel (PEN Berlin) about the upcoming elections in Turkey and the historic opportunity to vote out an authoritarian regime. An event organized by PEN Berlin with the collegial support of the Gorki Theater. Tickets
PEN Berlin at the Leipzig Book Fair ’23
Poetry for many, poetry for few, poetry for tough ones, poetry for you
Thursday, April 27th, 13:00-13:45 h Hall 2, booth B 401 (booth of the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, BKM)
Poetry, the densest of all literary forms, in opressed societies often serves as a popular voice of criticism against the regime. Yet, its often elaborate, ambiguous, not easily decipherable language may trigger a feeling of inferiority in some readers. Despite the dreamy harmlessness attributed to it poetry can be per- ceived as a provocation and indeed even a threat, as shown in the heated media debate on the contribu- tions to this year’s Peter Huchel Prize or the CIA’s decision to keep the poems of ex-Guantanamo prison- ers under lock and key.
With: Sebastian Köthe, Lea Schneider and Miryam Schellbach
Moderation: Alexandru Bulucz:; Opening: Claudia Roth
What is solidarity?
Thursday, April 27, 4:00 p.m. Hall 2, Stand C 600 (Sachbuch Forum / Forum Non-Fiction)
Literature is a free space for people all over the world – that’s why it is always fought against in the hard- est way. Violence against writers takes many forms. Authors are persecuted for their texts, thrown into prison, tortured, driven into exile; their books are banned. What can concrete solidarity look like? And how far does our solidarity extend when the opinions and attitudes of the persecuted colleagues do not coincide with our own? Against which kinds of distress do we defend each other?
With: Sandra Hetzl, Eva Menasse and Deniz Yücel
Russlandrunde: Literatur, Putinismus und Widerstand
Sunday, April 30, 12:30 p.m., Hall 4, Booth E 101 (Forum Open Society)
How are Russian authors doing these days, what moves them, and what divides them? What does the col- lective experience of dictatorship do to their work and life? How can resistance to the regime look like, is literature a possible answer to the silencing of critical media? What is sharper, the word or the sword?
With: Maria Stepanowa (this year’s winner of the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair), Alexander Estis and Mikhail Shishkin
Moderation: Julya Rabinowich
