International events at Weltempfang, the 2020 LiBeraturpreis and the African Perspectives symposium
This year’s Weltempfang – Frankfurter Buchmesse’s centre for politics, literature and translation – is dedicated to the topic “Europe – Connecting Cultures”. The programme includes highly topical issues, such as the role of culture, literature and politics in the coronavirus crisis, and debates about displacement, migration and racism. The Weltempfang events will be broadcast each day of the fair at www.buchmesse.de/weltempfang and on Frankfurter Buchmesse's YouTube channel. The opening event will take place on Wednesday, 14 October at 5.30 pm, on the ARD Book Fair Stage in the Festhalle.
Programme highlights include:
14 October 2020, 8.30 pm
Together! Restarting culture in Europe, from remembrance towards a shared history
Nora Bossong and Francesca Melandri on solidarity in Europe.
16 October 2020, 7.00 pm
Africa and Europe – how can cooperation succeed?
Kenyan author Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor in conversation with Dr. Gerd Hankel and Prof. em. Robert Kappel.
16 October 2020, 8.30 pm
Race, Sex and Colonialism – a topical debate beyond European borders
Leïla Slimani and Elsa Dorlin on gender and colonialism.
18 October 2020, 5.00 pm
The World After: Bruno Latour and Hartmut Rosa on the consequences of the coronavirus crisis
Two of Europe’s leading thinkers discuss new ways of considering our relationship with the world.
The complete Weltempfang programme is available at www.buchmesse.de/weltempfang
A selection of press photos of speakers can be downloaded here. Please note the copyright information: https://mvb.cloud.booklan.de/index.php/s/tGHJTqS9SBonB2c/download
LiBeraturpreis 2020: Lina Atfah
The LiBeraturpreis is awarded annually by Litprom e.V. to a female author from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Arab world. The recipient is chosen by a public online vote, and in 2020 the award goes to Lina Atfah, a refugee who left Syria in 2014 and who has lived in Germany since. Born in 1989, the author is the first to be honoured for a volume of poetry: Das Buch von der fehlenden Ankunft (The Book of the Missing Arrival, German translation by Suleman Taufiq, among others, published by Pendragon Verlag in 2019). The award ceremony will be broadcast on Thursday, 15 October, at 7.30 pm on the Litprom e.V. YouTube channel. The presentation speech will be given by poet Safiye Can. On Friday, 16 October, at 1 pm, Lina Atfah will appear on the ARD Book Fair Stage in the Festhalle in conversation with poet Jan Wagner, who contributed to the interlinear translations of her work. The 2020 LiBeraturpreis is being supported by the city of Frankfurt’s Department of Science and Culture and its Department for Women.The award ceremony was recorded in Villa 102, the cultural platform of KfW Stiftung.
Please find a press photo of Lina Atfah here available for download: https://mvb.cloud.booklan.de/index.php/s/HJ3ZoMEoAiFM5qx
African Perspectives – Writers and Literary Experts in Conversation
Litprom e.V. is celebrating an anniversary this year: It all began with a topical focus on sub-Saharan Africa at the 1980 Frankfurter Buchmesse. 40 years later, it’s time to take a fresh look at the literatures from this region. KfW Stiftung and Litprom are jointly organising a symposium on African literatures and their rendering in the German-speaking world: “African Perspectives – Writers and Literary Experts in Conversation”. The event was recorded at Villa 102 in Frankfurt and released on 12 October on the YouTube channels of KfW Stiftung and Litprom, as well as on www.buchmesse.de and on the Frankfurter Buchmesse YouTube channel, where it still can be watched. Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o will give the keynote speech; further speakers include the authors Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia/USA) and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya). Authors, publishers, translators and others will discuss the developments that have taken place over the past decades, and visions for the future. Spoken-word author Koleka Putuma will conclude the event with a reading. The symposium is being supported by the German Federal Foreign Office and by Übersetzerhaus Looren.On the same evening at 6 pm, there will be a get-together on ZOOM where interested people can ask the speakers questions.