Goethe-Institut Australien | Bookmarks | Literature Live

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 ‘The Blue Sky’ have been translated into many languages. Writer Galsan Tschinag was guest of the 2007 German Arts Festival “GermMANY FACES Australia”. He talked to Florian Messner, producer and presenter of the Kulturchronik segment of SBS.

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

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 Aust, a renowned German author and journalist talks to Trudi Latour from SBS German Radio about his work on “The Baader Meinhof Complex”.

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´ Week and subsequently gave a reading at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney. His bestselling book “The Collector of Worlds” describes the life of the British officer Sir Richard Burton who becomes obsessed with learning indigenous languages und foreign cultures. Listen to Ilija Trojanow as he talks to Trudi Latour and tells us more about his love for the world and for the German language.

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. © SBS German Radio.

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.

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 first comprehensive study in English of Schlingensief’s intriguing body of work – outlines his background and provides descriptive analyses of key productions in each of the mediums he employed prior to his untimely death in August 2010. Listen to the interview with Anna Theresa Scheer who is one of the editor of the new book: Christoph Schlingensief: Art without Borders, eds. Forrest, T.L. & Scheer, A.T. (Intellect Books: Bristol, UK/Chicago, USA, 2010).

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 – this was one of Schlingensiefs main credo. Listen to the second part of the interview with Anna Teresa Scheer who also tries to answer the question: How would the Australian audience be able to engage with an artist like Schlingensief or how would Schlingensief have worked in Australia?

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 Lü, Chair, Department of Germanic Studies, University of Sydney. Followed by a German reading with Dagmar Leupold at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney. What is the connection between Kleist and Australia and how did Dagmar Leupold approach Kleist for her novel?

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 Lü, Chair, Department of Germanic Studies, University of Sydney. Followed by a German reading with Dagmar Leupold at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney. What is the connection between Kleist and Australia and how did Dagmar Leupold approach Kleist for her novel?

Marion Döring is the Director of the European Film Academy, which is based in Berlin, and presents the annual European Film Awards every second year in one of the other European capitals. The event is broadcast in over 40 countries. In March 2010 Marion Döring visited the Perth International Festival and introduced Short Matters, this year's best short films from Europe, for the first time in Australia. Short Matters features a fabulous selection of award-winning dramas, comedies, animation and documentaries from Europe's premiere emerging talent. She talks with Trudi Latour.

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’s Audi Festival of German Films, talks about her book Aimée and Jaguar.

Renowned German writer Antje Rávic Strubel in a session entitled "And the wall came tumbling down", at the Melbourne Writers Festival, 2009.

Award-winning author Saša Stanišic about his first novel “How The Soldier Repaires The Gramophone”.

Saša Stanišic, in discussion with Jeremy Fisher and reading from his novel “How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone”

Listen to the SBS-interview with Andrea Maria Schenkel who won several literature awards for both her first novel "The Murder Farm" (Tannöd) as well as her second novel "Ice Cold" ("Kalteis"). "The Murder Farm" has already been made into a radioplay, with a play and a movie currently being produced. Journalist Trudi Latour talks to the bestseller author about her amazing career, the novel "The Murder Farm" and the writer's future plans. (c) SBS German Radio.

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 – view through the eyes of a young Australian writer.

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".