Between two truths
Bettina Wilpert reads from "Nichts, was uns passiert", 1 November, 7 pm, at TIETZ
Bettina Wilpert will be reading from her book "Nichts, was uns passiert" (Nothing that happens to us) in the TIETZ Central Library on Thursday, 1 November at 7 pm. Admission is free. The reading is part of the Literaturforum Bibliothek - a project organised by the Sächsischer Literaturrat e. V. together with the DBV-Landesverband Sachsen.
Bettina Wilpert has created her debut novel about an alleged rape after a night of partying and drinking in an unusual way. It is fuelled by a wide variety of voices, all of which report on the event and yet each one says something different. Even the two voices of those actually involved are questioned. In "Nothing that happens to us", Bettina Wilpert addresses the legal and personal consequences of rape.
The book: Leipzig. Summer. University, football World Cup and public catering. Good friends. A birthday party. Anna says she was raped. Jonas says it was consensual sex. Testimony against testimony. After two months close to despair, Anna finally reports Jonas, but the word "false accusation" soon hangs in the air among her friends. Jonas' and Anna's credibility and their friendships are jeopardised.
The novel "Nichts, was uns passiert" ("Nothing that happens to us") deals with the impact of rape on victims, perpetrators and those around them and how society deals with sexual violence.
Bettina Wilpert, born in 1989, grew up near Altötting. She studied Cultural Studies, English and Literary Writing in Potsdam, Berlin and Leipzig. She was a finalist in the 23rd Open Mike, a scholarship holder of the 20th Klagenfurt Literature Course, Artist in Residence at PROSANOVA 2017 and a scholarship holder of the 2017 Prose Writers' Workshop of the Literary Colloquium Berlin. She has published texts in Bella Triste, Metamorphosen, Outside the Box, P.S. Politisch Schreiben and testcard, among others. She works as a trainer for German as a foreign language and lives in Leipzig. "Nichts, was uns passiert" is her debut novel, for which she was honoured with the Lessing Prize of the Free State of Saxony and with which she is on the Hotlist 2018, which annually selects the ten best books from independent publishers. Bettina Wilpert also received the ZDF "aspekte" literature prize for the best literary debut of 2018 for the book.