US AND THEM

Common Ground. Literature from Southeast Europe

#commonground #traduki #wirundsie

SEE YOU NEXT TIME!

The Leipzig Book Fair 2023 takes place 23- 26 March 2023.

This year, Common Ground – Literature from Southeast Europe is for the third and final time the Region in Focus at the Leipzig Book Fair. Unfortunately, and to our great dismay, the Leipzig Book Fair 2022 has been cancelled. But, nevertheless, our programme featuring books, authors, music and films will be presented in a slightly altered fashion in Leipzig as well as online under this year’s motto “US AND THEM”.

Our famous Balkannacht and the Balkan Film Week will take place as usual at the UT Connewitz in Leipzig. In addition, fascinating talks with authors will be taking place in Leipzig and online.

 

17 March 2022

18 March 2022

19 March 2022

20 March 2022

Thursday, 17 March 2022

  • 7 PM
    My Parents
    This Does Not Belong to You
    Online

    With: Aleksandar Hemon (USA/ Bosnia and Herzegovina)
    Moderator: Jörg Plath

    Hemon’s new book is actually two: “Meine Eltern” (Claassen; t: H. Ahrens) is the story of Hemon’s parents, who emigrate from Sarajevo to Canada. Hemon tells accurately, tenderly and poetically of his mother’s quiet attempts to keep the family together, of his father’s fanatical beekeeping and measures almost casually the losses suffered by the Hemons and their compatriots. «Alles nicht dein Eigen» is the more raucous, raw and unconventional side of the same coin: the young Hemon, wild and angry. We experience a young, energetic and often angry son who cannot understand what the hell is so difficult about arriving somewhere new.

    Co-Organiser: Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Link

Friday, 18 March 2022

  • 7 PM
    Literarischer Nerd erliest Südosteuropa
    Of Parents and Children
    Online

    With: Tatiana Țîbuleac (Moldova/France), Lavinia Braniște (Romania)
    Moderator: Florian Valerius aka Literarischer Nerd

    For many, the parent-child relationship is the longest and often the most complex relationship in their lives. Two authors, Tatiana Țîbuleac (Moldova/France) and Lavinia Braniște (Romania), approach it in very different ways. While Țîbuleac tells of the profound change in a mother-son relationship in the face of illness and death in “Der Sommer als Mutter grüne Augen hatte” (Schöffling & Co.; t: E. Wichner), Braniște approaches the past relationship between the long-dead dictator’s wife Elena Ceaușescu and her daughter in “Sonia meldet sich” (Mikrotext; t: M. Klenke). What is initially a welcome research assignment for the main character Sonia, a young Bucharest radio presenter and blogger, leads her deeper and deeper into the gruelling struggle for the past and the memory of her country – and her own family. The talk is led by Florian Valerius aka Literary Nerd and is a cooperation with TRADUKI.

    Co-Organiser: Romanian Ministry of Culture

    Link

  • 8 PM
    Opening „US AND THEM“
    Europe’s Divided Skies
    Why the West Does Not Understand the East
    UT Connewitz

    With: Norbert Mappes-Niediek, Manuel Sarrazin, Ralf Beste
    Moderator: Ulrich Ladurner

    The West’s view of the East was (and is?) characterised by a feeling of superiority, often coupled with the West’s claim to want to ‘educate’ the East. Conversely, the East felt misunderstood and underestimated by the Western model. Are there ways to meet the differences between Eastern and Western Europe with appreciation and to build a bridge across “Europe’s divided skies”? (Ch. Links Verlag)

    Co-Organiser: Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany

Saturday, 19 March 2022

  • 12 PM
    Crossings
    Fluid identities, non-binary gender
    UT Connewitz

    With: Pajtim Statovci (Kosovo/Finland); Ivana Bodrožić (Croatia)
    Moderator: Ismar Hačam

    Fluid identities, non-binary gender: terms that threaten to degenerate into fashionable buzzwords of our time are examined by the Kosovar-Finnish author Pajtim Statovci and the Croatian author Ivana Bodrožić in penetrating, personal and literary ways at the highest level in their multiple award-winning novels “Grenzgänge” (Luchterhand; t: S. Moster) and “Söhne, Töchter” (original title “Sinovi, kćeri”, Hermes, Croatia). The media discourse often belies the fact that a long-suppressed identity continues to produce outsiders and create borders: real and imagined, the latter often no less real.

    Co-Organisers: Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, National Library of Kosovo “Pjetër Bogdani”, Finland Institute in Germany

  • 1:30 PM
    Literaturpalast
    Exit From the City of Apples
    UT Connewitz

    With: Marianna Georgieva (Bulgaria); Luljeta Lleshanaku (Albania)
    Moderator: Tino Schlench

    Poetry from Southeast Europe: we present two outstanding lyrical voices that subject the individual, and with it social customs, to a radical analysis, even a vivisection: From Bulgaria, we will meet Marianna Georgieva with her German-language debut “ausweg” (Edition Korrespondenzen; t: A. Sitzmann), and from Albania the poet Luljeta Lleshanaku with her “Die Stadt der Äpfel”, (Edition Lyrik Kabinett at Hanser, t: A. Grill). Lleshanaku’s poems bear witness to the political experience and repression in Albania under Enver Hoxha and to the post-communist era. The discussion will be led by Tino Schlench as part of his well-known podcast series “Literaturpalast Audiospur”.

    Co-Organisers: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria

  • 3 PM
    The Erased
    Two novels about being and becoming the other
    UT Connewitz

    With: Miha Mazzini (Slovenia); Petar Andonovski (North Macedonia)
    Moderator: Annemarie Türk

    You wake up one morning and you are a foreigner in your own country! It is a surreal story with a very real background: In 1991, 25,000 inhabitants of Slovenia, born in the “wrong” region, were simply erased from the registers. Miha Mazzini tells of the struggle for their existence and their otherness in their own country in his book “Du existierst nicht” (Edition CONVERSO; t: A. C. Bolton). Otherness is also the defining attitude to life of the characters who find themselves at the southernmost point of Europe in the novel “Fear of Barbarians” (original title “Страв од варвари”, ИЛИ-ИЛИ, North Macedonia) by the North Macedonian author Petar Andonovski.

    Co-Organiser: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Northern Macedonia, JAK – Slovenian Book Agency

  • 7 PM
    Damn Mistletoes
    Agriculture and Literature
    Online

    With: Nataša Kramberger
    Moderator: Ismar Hačam

    A young writer moves back from Berlin to her Slovenian home village to take over her mother’s farm. After ten years, she leaves the big city streets of Berlin behind and faces the challenges of rural life: people around her doubt her decision, her tools are old and useless, and she has to protect her young plants from the capricious weather and the consequences of climate change. Nataša Kramberger tells of this in her autofictional novel “Verfluchte Misteln” (Verbrecher Verlag; t: Liza Linde). She critically and self-ironically explores the role models that shape both of her worlds and, not least, the relationship between humans and nature. The author talks to Ismar Hačam about trees and mistletoes, agriculture and literature.

    Co-Organiser: SKICA Berlin – Slovenian Cultural and Information Centre Berlin

    Link

  • 8 PM
    Balkannacht
    US AND THEM
    UT Connewitz & Streaming

    With: Stefan Bošković (Montenegro), Radmila Petrović (Serbia), Tanja Stupar Trifunović, (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lindita Arapi (Albania/Germany), Tatiana Țîbuleac (Moldava, France)
    Music: Pantaloons
    Moderator: Ismar Hačam, Hana Stojić

    This year, we will once again take you on our nightly journey criss-crossing the Balkans. Celebrate the polyphonic literature of Southeast Europe with us at the legendary UT Connewitz and let yourself be carried away by the drive of the young Slovene band “Pantaloons”. Hold your pants!

    Streaming link

    Co-Organisers: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Montenegro, Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, Liechtenstein Cultural Foundation, Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romanian Ministry of Culture

Sunday, 20 March 2022

  • 11 AM
    Of Botched Times and Their Masterpieces
    Two Writers – two worlds
    UT Connewitz

    With: Barbi Marković (Serbia/Austria) und Ana Schnabl (Slovenia)
    Moderator: Annemarie Türk

    What a provocative title, what a crazy book by the Serbian-Austrian author Barbi Marković: “Die verschissene Zeit” (Residenz Verlag). It is a unique pop-cultural play on Belgrade in the nineties. A time when society was clearly “botched up”: Three young people experience poverty, violence, inflation, drugs, gangs but also friendship, weird sex and a turbulent journey through time. In Ana Schnabl’s book “Meisterwerk” (Folio Verlag; t: Klaus Detlef Olof), an unequal pair of lovers finds itself in Ljubljana: Adam, a literature professor who moves in dissident circles, is trying to write his second novel. Ana, a young ambitious editor and at the same time an informant for the national security service, receives Adam’s manuscript for review. Schnabl’s haunting psychogram is set against the backdrop of the catastrophe Yugoslavia is heading towards after Tito’s death.

    Co-Organisers: JAK – Slovenian Book Agency, SKICA Berlin – Slovenian Cultural and Information Centre Berlin, Beletrina, Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria, Interessengemeinschaft Übersetzerinnen Übersetzer (Literaturhaus Wien) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport of the Republic of Austria.

  • 1 PM
    Time Shelter
    The latest novel by Georgi Gospodinov
    UT Connewitz

    With: Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria)
    Moderator: Jörg Plath

    The secret protagonist in Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov’s new novel is: time. The narrator Gaustine explores the winding paths of the 20th century and eventually opens a “clinic for the past” that enables Alzheimer patients to encounter their own past despite fading memories: each floor is modelled on a particular decade. But why are healthy people suddenly interested in being admitted to the clinic, too? With “Zeitzuflucht” (Aufbau Verlag; t: A. Sitzmann), Gospodinov has succeeded in writing a novel full of playfulness and dark wit that opens up a new way of thinking about our past, present and future in an intertwined way.

    Co-Organiser: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria

  • 7 PM
    Time Shelter
    The latest novel by Georgi Gospodinov
    Online

    With: Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgarien)
    Moderator: Hana Stojić

    The secret protagonist in Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov’s new novel is: time. The narrator Gaustine explores the winding paths of the 20th century and eventually opens a “clinic for the past” that enables Alzheimer patients to encounter their own past despite fading memories: each floor is modelled on a particular decade. But why are healthy people suddenly interested in being admitted to the clinic, too? With “Zeitzuflucht” (Aufbau Verlag; t: A. Sitzmann), Gospodinov has succeeded in writing a novel full of playfulness and dark wit that opens up a new way of thinking about our past, present and future in an intertwined way.

    Co-Organiser: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria

    Link

Participants

Petar Andonovski
Lindita Arapi
Ralf Beste
Ivana Bodrožić
Stefan Bošković
Lavinia Braniște
Marianna Georgieva
Georgi Gospodinov
Ismar Hačam
Aleksandar Hemon
Nataša Kramberger
Ulrich Ladurner
Luljeta Lleshanaku
Norbert Mappes-Niediek
Barbi Marković
Miha Mazzini
Pantaloons
Radmila Petrović
Jörg Plath
Manuel Sarrazin
Tino Schlench
Ana Schnabl
Pajtim Statovci
Hana Stojić
Tanja Stupar Trifunović
Tatiana Țîbuleac
Annemarie Türk
Team US AND THEM
Florian Valerius

Natasha Atanasova

Petar Andonovski

Petar Andonovski was born in 1987, in Kumanovo, North Macedonia. He studied general and comparative literature at the University of Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. He has published one poetry collection and four novels, including The Summer You Weren’t There (2020, first Macedonian queer novel). In 2015, his novel The Body One Must Live In won the national award for Novel of the Year. Fear of Barbarians received the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature. His novels have been translated into: English, French, Serbian, Bulgarian.

Stephan Boltz

Lindita Arapi

Lindita Arapi, born in Albania, belongs to the circle of the so-called Albanian literary avant-garde. She publishes poetry collections, novels, essays and journalistic pieces. Her first novel, Schlüsselmädchen, was awarded the Book of the Year Award by Kult Academy in Albania and translated into German. Her most recent novel, Die Eingemauerte, is currently being translated into German and is forthcoming in Weidle Verlag. In addition to her writing, Lindita Arapi works as a freelance radio editor for Deutsche Welle (Bonn) and translator.

Ralf Beste

Ralf Beste, born in 1966 in Witten, studied history in Bochum, Bielefeld and Baltimore (Master of Arts, Johns Hopkins University; Magister Artium, University of Bielefeld). From 2001 to 2014 editor of SPIEGEL. 2014 to 2016 Deputy Head of the Planning Staff at the Federal Foreign Office; from 2016 to 2017 Commissioner for Strategic Communication and from 2017 to 2019 Head of the Planning Staff at the Federal Foreign Office. From 2019 to the beginning of 2022, Ralf Beste was Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Republic of Austria. He is Head of the Department for Culture and Communication at the Federal Foreign Office.

Tomislav Marić

Ivana Bodrožić

Ivana Simić Bodrožić was born in 1982 in Vukovar. She studied Croatian Literature and Philosophy in Zagreb. She published her first volume of poetry in 2005; since then, her poetry has been printed in international literary magazines and anthologies. She has received several prizes, including the Kiklop Prize (2010) for her debut novel Hotel Zagorje. In 2020 she published her novel Sinovi, kćeri.

Dado Ljaljević

Stefan Bošković

Stefan Bošković was born in 1983 in Podgorica. His books include the short story collection Transparentne životinje (Transparent Animals, 2018) and the novel Šamaranje (Slap in the Face, 2014), awarded the 2014 prize for the best manuscript novel in Montenegro. In 2016, he won second prize at the Festival of European Short Stories for Fashion and Friends. Bošković has written scripts for a feature-length film, several short films, a sitcom series and a number of documentaries. Several of his short plays have been staged. His novel The Minister, for which he received the EU Literature Prize, is published in German translation in March 2022.

Cosmin Gogu

Lavinia Braniște

Lavinia Braniște was born in 1983, in Brăila. She studied foreign languages ​​in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest. Lavinia worked as a language teacher and translator and has translated over forty books from English, French and Spanish. She has published three novels so far: Interior Zero, Sonia ridică mâna and Mă găsești când vrei. Lavinia also writes children’s literature, some of her books were included in the White Ravens catalogue in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Lavinia currently lives in her hometown, Brăila, and dedicates herself to writing.

Tzveti Pavlova

Marianna Georgieva

Marianna Georgieva was born in 1986 in Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, in the Russian Federation. She studied law, creative writing as well as artistic psycho-social practices and psychodrama. She made her debut in 2014 with the novel Der Schuldner. 2016 saw the publication of her first poetry collection Exotische Arten, einen Vogel zu zerschneiden, followed by her second poetry collection ausweg in 2020. She is the editor of the online journal http://www.freepoetrysociety.com.

Svetla Stoyanova

Georgi Gospodinov

Georgi Gospodinov (1968) is a leading Bulgarian writer, the author of Natural Novel and The Physics of Sorrow, among many other books. He is winner of the Central European Angelus Award (2019), the Jan Michalski Prize (2016) and many other accolades. Recently, Gospodinov was awarded the Usedom Prize (Germany, 2021) for contribution to the European literature by a jury presided by Olga Tokarczuk. His latest novel, Time Shelter (Zeitzuflucht), was published in the spring of 2020 during the first lockdown and is forthcoming in more than fifteen countries, among them Germany (Aufbau), France (Gallimard), US (Liveright/Norton). In 2021, Time Shelter won the prestigious Italian award Premio Strega Europeo.

Alex Goldberg

Ismar Hačam

Ismar Hačam was born in 1991 in Livno (Bosnia and Herzegovina). He studied German language and literature in Sarajevo, Würzburg and Berlin. He currently lives in Berlin, where he organises, curates, and moderates literary events.

 

Velibor Bozović

Aleksandar Hemon

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, and three collections of short stories: The Question of Bruno; Nowhere Man, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Love and Obstacles. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, intending to stay for a matter of months. While he was there, Sarajevo came under siege, and he was unable to return home. Hemon wrote his first story in English in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004. Meine Eltern / Alles nicht dein Eigen was published in German translation in 2021. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter. 

Daniele Croci

Nataša Kramberger

Nataša Kramberger, born 1983, is a writer, columnist, and organic farmer. She writes essays, reportages and commentaries for newspapers and magazines. For her debut novel Nebesa v robidah (2007) she received the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) in 2010. In 2011, she published Kaki vojaki (with Jana Kocjan), in 2014 an essay collection titled Brez zidu, and in 2016 Tujčice. Verfluchte Misteln (2021) was published in Slovene under the title Primerljivi hektarji in 2018. In summer she lives in Jurovski Dol, Slovenia, and runs a small biodynamic farm with the eco-art collective Zelena Centrala. In winter she lives in Berlin.

Ulli Idomeni

Ulrich Ladurner

Ulrich Ladurner, born in South Tyrol, is foreign editor of the Hamburg weekly DIE ZEIT since 1999. He reported from the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and other crisis areas. Since 2016, he has been head of DIE ZEIT’s European office in Brussels. His latest book: Der Fall Italien. Wenn Gefühle die Politik beherrschen (Edition Körber, 2020).

 

Lulezim Haziri

Luljeta Lleshanaku

Luljeta Lleshanaku is an Albanian poet. She is the author of nine poetry collections in her language, which are widely translated and published in other languages. Her last book in English, Negative Space, was a winner of the “English PEN” award, a finalist for the “GRIFFIN International Poetry Prize 2019” in Canada and a finalist for “PEN America 2019”. She is also the author of two poetry collections in German language: Kinder der Nature published with the support of TRADUKI by Edition Korrespondenzen (2010), and Die Stadt der Äpfel, published in 2021 by Hanser Literaturverlage.

Stella Kager

Norbert Mappes-Niediek

Norbert Mappes-Niediek, born 1953, is a journalist and publicist, since 1991-2017 active as South-East Europe correspondent for German, Dutch, Swiss and Austrian newspapers as well as for Deutschlandfunk. Author of non-fiction books on the region, most recently Arme Roma, böse Zigeuner (Berlin 2012) und Europas geteilter Himmel (Berlin 2021).

Apollonia Theresa Bitzan

Barbi Marković

Barbi Marković, born 1980 in Belgrade, studied German and has lived in Vienna since 2006. In 2011/2012 she was a writer-in-residence in Graz. In 2009, Marković caused a sensation with the Thomas Bernhard remix novel Ausgehen. In 2016, the novel Superheldinnen was published, for which she received the Alpha Literary Award, the Adelbert von Chamisso Award and the Priessnitz Prize in 2019. In 2017, Barbi Marković read at the Bachmann Prize, in 2018 Superheldinnen was staged at the Volkstheater Wien. She also authored numerous short stories, plays and radio plays. Most recently Minihorror (2023) was published by Residenz Verlag.

Miran Juršič

Miha Mazzini

Miha Mazzini, born 1961, is a Slovenian writer, screenwriter and director. He has received several awards for his work; for his novel Otroštvo he received the Kresnik Prize for the best novel of the year. In 2021, his novel Du existierst nicht was published in German translation. It is about the state that takes away people’s rights and identity in a completely unlawful way. Further publications in German are in the works.

Miha Skrt

Pantaloons

Pantaloons trio is a community of three “clumsy fellows” as they like to call themselves. Luka Belič (saxophone), Aljaž Markežič (sousaphone), and David Nik Lipovac (drums) first emerged as part of the Chilli Brass Band in 2016. Their unique music style sits between electronic dance music and a hint of jazz, funk, breakbeat, dubstep, and much more. In 2020, they performed at the international music festival MENT in Ljubljana and the Liverpool Sound City Festival, supported by INES#talent 2020. In 2021 they performed at the Electric Castle festival in Romania and European Youth Event in France. They opened 2022 with concerts at A38 Hajó in Budapest and Eurosonic Noordeslag in the Netherlands. In May 2022 they will release their first album.

Marija Strajnic / Elle

Radmila Petrović

Radmila Petrović, born in 1996 in Užice/Serbia, is a poet and one of the most sought-after young voices from the former Yugoslavia. For her art she draws on her childhood memories spent in a village For urban audiences she opens up new perspectives on the human relationship to nature. Her themes also include family, village life, childhood traumas and female perspectives on the wars waged mostly by men.

Gezett

Jörg Plath

Jörg Plath, born in 1960, is literary editor of “Deutschlandfunk Kultur” and writes for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” and the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. He has been an editor, ghostwriter, and jury member (German Book Prize, International Literature Prize). He is currently on the jury of Weltempfänger.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Manuel Sarrazin

Manuel Sarrazin, born in Dortmund in 1982, studied history, Eastern European studies and law. First at Bremen University and then at Hamburg University. Since 1998, he is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens GAL Hamburg. He served as a member of the Bundestag from 2008 to 2021. Since 2012, he is on the board of trustees of the Institute for European Politics (IEP); from 2014 till 2020 he was the vice-president of the Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, since 2020 he is its president. Since 2019, he is the vice-president of Europäische Bewegung Deutschland e.V.. Since 2019 he also sits on the board of the Stiftung für polnisch-deutsche Zusammenarbeit (Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation). As of the start of 2022, Sarrazin is the special envoy of the Federal Government for the countries of the Western Balkans.

Marion Wittfeld

Tino Schlench

Tino Schlench runs Literaturpalast, a platform specialising in Eastern European literature (Instagram, website, podcast), and is now one of the most successful book bloggers in the German-speaking world. In 2020, Literaturpalast was awarded the Buchblog Award 2020. Once a month, in his podcast “Literaturpalast Audiospur“, Tino Schlench meets authors, translators, journalists and other people from literary life who deal with the literature of Southeast Europe in very different ways.

Ana Schnabl

Ana Schnabl (born 1985, Ljubljana) is a Slovene writer, editor and doctoral student. For her short-story collection Razvezani [Untangled] she received the Best Debut Prize in 2017 and the Croatian Edo Budiša Award in 2019. Her second book, the novel Mojstrovina [Masterpiece] was published in 2020. The German translation is forthcoming in March 2022. She has already begun work on her third book, a crime novel. In her doctoral work, she focuses on feminist autobiographies. She lives in Kamnik, northern Slovenia.

Anna Kurki

Pajtim Statovci

Pajtim Statovci was born in Kosovo to Albanian parents in 1990. His family fled the Yugoslav wars and moved to Finland when he was two years old. He holds an MA in comparative literature and is a PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki. His first book, My Cat Yugoslavia, won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize for best debut novel; his second novel, Crossing, was a finalist for the National Book Award and was published in German translation under the title Grenzgänge in 2021; and Bolla was awarded Finland’s highest literary honor, the Finlandia Prize. In 2018, he received the Helsinki Writer of the Year Award.

Dženat Dreković

Hana Stojić

Hana Stojić, born in Sarajevo in 1982, studied Translation Studies at Vienna University and works as a translator and cultural mediator. For her first translation into Bosnian, Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Liebhaberinnen, she received a translation prize awarded by the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Since 2008, she was working for Traduki, helming the project from 2014 till the end of 2021.

Borislav Brezo

Tanja Stupar Trifunović

Tanja Stupar-Trifunović was born in Zadar in 1977 and is a graduate of the University of Banja Luka. Stupar-Trifunović lives in Banja Luka and works as the Editor of Putevi, a literary magazine. For her debut novel Satovi u majčinoj sobi (Die Uhren in Mutters Zimmer) she was awarded the EU Prize for Literature in 2016. The novel was also nominated for the prestigious NIN Award.

Natalia Rusu

Tatiana Țîbuleac

Tatiana Țîbuleac was born in 1978 in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, and has Moldovan and Romanian nationality. She holds a Degree in Journalism. She made her debut as a writer in 2014 with a collection of short stories Fabule Moderne – Modern Tales. In 2017, her first novel appeared: Vara în care mama a avut ochii verzi. It was awarded the prize of the Writer´s Union of Moldova, the prize of the Observator Cultural literary magazine in Bucharest and the Lyceum prize at the FILIT festival in Iași. In Spain it was awarded the Booksellers Recommend 2020 Prize for Fiction and Calamo Prize. Grădina de sticlă is her second novel and won 2019 EU Prize for Literature. Her books are translated into ten languages. Since 2008 she has been living in Paris.

Nini Tschavoll

Annemarie Türk

Annemarie Türk, born in 1953 in Klagenfurt, studied history, political science and Slovenian language as well as cultural management and sponsoring. From 1992 to 2013, she was head of cultural promotion and sponsorship at KulturKontakt Austria and was responsible for cultural cooperation with and in 15 countries in Eastern and Southeast Europe. Since April 2013 she has been working as a freelance curator and lecturer for various educational institutions, cultural organisations and universities.

Team US AND THEM

 

Curator

Hana Stojić

 

Project Manager

Angelika Salvisberg

 

Coordination

Barbara Anderlič

Marija Karaklajić

Andrej Lovšin

Radmila Radovanović

Ljubica Šljukić

 

Web design

Barbara Anderlič, Matthew Morete

 

Illustrations | Animation

Lea Zupančič

 

PR

projekt2508

 

Digital events

Digital concept

Anna Götte, Hana Stojić

 

Concept | Director & cinematographer

Ivan Marković

 

Production

Ljubica Šljukić

 

Sound

Katharina Hauke

 

Tech | Editing | Post-production

Berislav Župarić

 

Music

Pantaloons

 

Balkan Film Week

 

Curator

Marija Katalinić

 

Project Manager

Barbara Anderlič

 

Coordination

Sebastian Gebeler

 

Graphic design

Janett Andrejewski

 

Bob Sala

Florian Valerius

Valerius has been a bookseller in Trier for 15 years, currently in an indie bookshop. Before that he was for many years the manager of the university bookshop. Florian Valerius, born in 1982, is also one of the most successful German-language bookstagrammers. Under @literarischernerd, he presents two to three new novels and illustrated books per week and shares with his online community of well over 25,000 followers his experiences as a reader and bookseller. In addition, he regularly holds live talks with people from the book industry.

US AND THEM – Of Bonds and Otherness

Hana StojićProgramme Curator

Dženat Dreković

COMMON GROUND. Literature from Southeast Europe is in its third year. In 2020 and 2021 we covered topics, which moved authors personally. We questioned how society and politics deal with the challenges of the past, present, and future, and showed what sort of realities authors give a literary voice to.

This year’s Common Ground programme is titled: US AND THEM.

In our third year as the Region in Focus at the Leipzig Book Fair, we raise the question of differences an things in common, of elements that bind us together and cut us off from another, of us, ourselves, and the other. Is the Southeast of Europe really that different from our surroundings, from what is familiar to us? What are imagined, and what, real distances? How big are the differences between us and them, between the Here and the There? Is a differentiation of the world into “East” and “West” still (or again!) topical?

There is nothing wrong with wanting to put order, structure, outlines and boundaries into the chaos that is one’s existence. This is how one’s own identity takes shape and is moulded, this is how one can reappraise and reassess it. Problems arise, when these assessments and one’s own existence is valued higher and as the proper way in respect to the lives of others – when we take on a position of superiority towards the other. And it does not matter from what direction we look at them.

US AND THEM brings together authors in whose books the characters are adamant about going their own path in life. They are filled with stories in which children refuse to take on their prescribed roles and question assumed designations and stances. We present books about people, who have to suffer lasting consequences because of decisions taken by shortsighted people in power. But these are also books about dreams, hopes, and fears – familiar to each and every one who tries to master life.

We invite you to listen to the voices from Southeast Europe. So „THEM“ may become a part of „US“ – and vice versa.

VIDEOS

17 March 2022

18 March 2022

19 March 2022

20 March 2022

US AND THEM – Of Bonds and Otherness

Hana StojićProgramme Curator

Dženat Dreković

COMMON GROUND. Literature from Southeast Europe is in its third year. In 2020 and 2021 we covered topics, which moved authors personally. We questioned how society and politics deal with the challenges of the past, present, and future, and showed what sort of realities authors give a literary voice to.

This year’s Common Ground programme is titled: US AND THEM.

In our third year as the Region in Focus at the Leipzig Book Fair, we raise the question of differences an things in common, of elements that bind us together and cut us off from another, of us, ourselves, and the other. Is the Southeast of Europe really that different from our surroundings, from what is familiar to us? What are imagined, and what, real distances? How big are the differences between us and them, between the Here and the There? Is a differentiation of the world into “East” and “West” still (or again!) topical?

There is nothing wrong with wanting to put order, structure, outlines and boundaries into the chaos that is one’s existence. This is how one’s own identity takes shape and is moulded, this is how one can reappraise and reassess it. Problems arise, when these assessments and one’s own existence is valued higher and as the proper way in respect to the lives of others – when we take on a position of superiority towards the other. And it does not matter from what direction we look at them.

US AND THEM brings together authors in whose books the characters are adamant about going their own path in life. They are filled with stories in which children refuse to take on their prescribed roles and question assumed designations and stances. We present books about people, who have to suffer lasting consequences because of decisions taken by shortsighted people in power. But these are also books about dreams, hopes, and fears – familiar to each and every one who tries to master life.

We invite you to listen to the voices from Southeast Europe. So „THEM“ may become a part of „US“ – and vice versa.