24th ilb
5 – 14 Sep 2024 Program
9 – 18 Sep 2024 Young Program

ilb Jahre: 2002

Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali was born in Indian Lahore in 1943, a city which was still under British colonial rule before becoming part of Pakistan in 1947. Threatened with years of imprisonment after having organised public demonstrations as part of a student organisation against the military dictatorship, he saw himself forced to

Tedi López Mills

Tedi López Mills, poet, translator and essayist was born in Mexico City in 1959. After studying philosophy at UNAM (‘Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México’) the author went to Paris and studied literature at the Sorbonne. After this she started to publish her poems in anthologies, her first poetry volume ‘Cinco

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in the Moroccan city of Fes in 1944. He went to the French grammar school in Tangier, and studied philosophy in Rabat. Initially a teacher, he then went on to join the circle of intellectuals and artists around »Souffles«, and its founder Abdellatif Laâbi in

Stefano Benni

Stefano Benni, one of the most well-known Italian authors of political satire, was born in Bologna in 1947. He is not only a novelist, dramatist and poet but also a journalist and director. Since his literary breakthrough with the science fiction novel “Terra!” in 1983, he has joined the ranks

Sonya Hartnett

Sonya Hartnett was born in 1968 in Melbourne, Australia where she still lives today.  The media specialist published her first novel, ‘Trouble All the Way’ at the age of 15 and has written around twenty variously pr ize-winning novels since then which have received several pr izes. For her young

Silke Scheuermann

The poet and author Silke Scheuermann was born in Karlsruhe in 1973. After finishing school she studied Theatre and Literature in Frankfurt, Leipzig and Paris. It was in the city on the Seine where she began to write at age twenty. Along with reviews she published poems and short stories

Sherko Fatah

Sherko Fatah was born in East Berlin in 1964 to an Iraqi Kurd father and a German mother. In 1975, his parents moved to West Germany, where Fatah studied philosophy and art history. He visited Iraq several times. In 2001, he published his début »Im Grenzland« (tr: At the Borderline),

Semezdin Mehmedinovic

Semezdin Mehmedinoviç was born in Kiseljak, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1960.  After studying Comparative Literature and Librarianship in Sarajevo, he worked as an editor for the opposition magazines for young people ‘Lica’ and ‘Valter’. He also did performance art.  He published his first book of poetry ‘Modrac’ in 1984, and his second

Salah Stétié

Salah Stétié was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1929.  Already at an early age, he was led to the playful use of language by his father who himself wrote poems.  The origins to his poetic creations can be found in the city of his birth, the crossroads between Arabic and

Rolf Sagen

Rolf Sagen was born in 1940 in Vadheim, Norway.  His first literary works appeared while he was studying Psychology at the University of Oslo.  He concluded his studies in 1971 with a treatise on Social Psychology.  For his debut work, the lyric collection ‘Dørklinker’ (1968; Engl: Door Knobs), he received

Robert Bober

Robert Bober was born a child of Polish Jews in Berlin in 1931. In 1933 his family emigrated to France, where thanks to a warning, they survived the razzia of the “Vélodrome d’Hiver” in July 1942. At the age of 16 he started an apprenticeship as a tailor and worked

Richard Ford

Richard Ford was born in 1944 in Jackson, Mississippi. He studied literature and law but also was employed as a railroad worker and a teacher and a science editor. Along the way he worked as a sports reporter, work which afforded him material with which to write the novel »The