Dear audience,
Hello Berlin! As Curator in Residence of this year’s international literature festival, I am looking forward to returning to this exciting, international city, which provided the backdrop for my last novel »Travelers« (in German »Reisen,« translated by Susann Urban), a book about arrivals and departures, complex characters and unexpected encounters. For me, the festival is a microcosm of this city – outward facing, welcoming and eager to embrace the new and different.
Counting the weeks and days to the 24th international literaturfestival berlin, I am spending the summer familiarizing myself more intensively with the authors featured at the festival. Many of the books are so good I, that I am reading them for the second time! I am particularly excited about the authors participating in the events I have personally curated, which I would like to present to you here:
- For me, one of the most highly anticipated events is our Africanfuturism panel, »Extreme Metaphors,« with Nnedi Okorafor. Nnedi has enthused millions of people in the US with her combination of magic, fantasy and science fiction, and I am thrilled that she is coming back to Germany. We will present her latest book »She Who Knows.« Also taking part in the Africanfuturism panel are Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, who talks about her second novel »Digging Stars,« about science and coming of age in Zimbabwe and the US, and Kenyan author Okwiri Oduor. Her debut novel, »Things They Lost« is the account of a young girl living in the middle of a village in an abandoned house occupied by ghosts – and searching for her mother.
- During the James Baldwin Centenary Panel, I will discuss with Logan February and Sasha Marianna Salzmann about their favorite James Baldwin books. I plan to present »If Beale Street Could Talk,« Baldwin’s story about love and racial injustice in America.
- One of the biggest names at the festival is the Booker Prize winning author, Ben Okri. His event, »Existential Creativity« is a literary and musical performance dedicated to his body of work and features pianist and composer Cymin Samawatie. Here, I would like to take the opportunity to personally recommend his lesser-known short story collections:
»Incidents at the Shrine« and »Stars of the New Curfew.«
- Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse is an exceptionally interesting literary voice of the present. She is delivering the festival keynote lecture on opening day. Her memoir »Le convoi« is a both a harrowing and essential book about the Rwandan genocide and is currently among the most talked about works in France.
- »Brotherless Night« by the brilliant author V. V. Ganeshananthan has already won two important prizes, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. The book is an epic about the Sri Lankan Civil War. She will also be part of the »Writing in a Time of Catastrophe« panel with Beata.
- In her latest book, »The Middle Daughter,« Nigerian/Belgian author Chika Unigwe writes about family, religious fraudsters and migration. This book is worth recommending, alone for the beauty of its prose. She is on the »Lost/Found in Translation« panel with Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila, writer of the award-winning novel »Tram 83«, and publisher Mkuki Bgoya.
- Noo Saro-Wiwa’s nonfiction book, »Black Ghosts« is a carefully researched and well written work about African migrants in China. The author is also taking part in our »The Art of Nonfiction« panel, together with Indian/British author and journalist Sonia Faleiro, whose investigative journalistic work »The Good Girls« harrowingly relates the murders of two young Indian women
- Joining Noo and Sonia on the nonfiction panel is debut author, Mary-Alice Daniel. She is both a poet, fiction author, and nonfiction writer. Her memoir, »A Coastline is an Immeasurable Thing«, is a fascinating account about growing up on three continents – Africa, Europe and America – written with the sensitivity of a poet and the imagination of a novelist.
I look forward to welcoming you to the festival and wish you a relaxing summer!
Helon Habila
(Curator in Residence of the 24th international literature festival berlin)
The entire program of this year’s Curator in Residence can be found here.