Literature days reading pleasure compact

City library: 9th edition takes place from 19 to 27 April

From 19 to 27 April, the ninth edition of the Chemnitz Literature Days Leselust will take place under the title "Reading Europe". Chemnitz City Library is looking beyond the horizon to the literary scene of our European neighbours and welcomes international authors to the TIETZ around UNESCO World Book Day on 23 April.

This year, Leselust is taking place in a compact form. The Leselust Literature Days have been held every two years in Chemnitz and the cultural region since 2006. However, as a larger edition is being planned for the Capital of Culture year 2025 with partners from the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Germany, this year's Leselust will be "smaller" and more compact than before.

The event will kick off on 19 April with Polish author Joanna Bator reading from her new novel "Bitternis". A book about war, violence, private misfortune and angry women. Joanna Bator received the International Stefan Heym Prize from the city of Chemnitz for her work in 2017.

On 20 April, Leipzig poetry slammer Elisa Adam will be giving a writing workshop for young poets at the TIETZ.

Also on 20 April, Radek Fridrich from Dečín and Pavel Novotńy from Liberec will read texts that deal with the topic of home in the broadest sense.

On 22 April, Slovenian author and organic farmer Nataša Kramberger's book "Mauerpfeffer" deals with her own farming activities in the context of climate change and the associated adversities.

On 24 April, Shelly Kupferberg, a journalist born in Tel Aviv, will present her book "Isidor: A Jewish Life" at the TIETZ. In it, she traces the life of her great-grand-uncle, the commercial councillor and advisor to the Austrian state, multimillionaire and art collector Dr Isidor Geller.

On 25 April, poet Kerstin Hensel, who was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, will be reading at the Lessing und Kompanie bookshop. In her new novel, a girl is born in 1804 in the Ore Mountains with a "lucky skin" that seems to promise a life full of happiness.

On 26 April, literature and music enter into a wonderful symbiosis in a joint performance by the Lithuanian author and first literature scholarship holder of the City of Chemnitz, Arna Aley, and the American solo cellist Jonathan Golove in the Neue Sächsische Galerie.

On 27 April, Chemnitz author Alexander Büttner will set the fantastic final chord with a reading from the Aquileria series, a fantastic medieval world full of adventures and stories.

The Leselust 2024 Literature Days are a project organised by Chemnitz City Library in cooperation with the German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe, the Institut français Sachsen, the Free German Authors' Association, Saxony Regional Association, the Evangelical Forum Chemnitz, the Lessing und Kompanie bookshop, Chemnitz University of Technology/Professorship of Modern German and Comparative Literature, the International Stefan Heym Society e. V. and the New Saxon Society of Literature. V. and the Neue Sächsische Galerie/Neue Chemnitzer Kunsthütte e. V.

The Chemnitz Literature Days Leselust 2024 are funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony. This measure is co-financed by tax funds on the basis of the budget adopted by the Saxon State Parliament.

Tickets are available at the information desk in the TIETZ (ground floor).

Attention event cancellation:

After printing the programme booklet, the event "Heym unterwegs" - Annotated reading with Heym's editor Heinfried Henniger - on 23 April 2024 had to be cancelled due to illness.