Kimia Bani, born in Tehran, is a Percussion player and accomplished musician, poet, and performer. Having obtained a Bachelor’s in Theatre, Drama, and Performing Arts, she turned her attention to music and cultural diversity in education, earning a Master’s in World Music. Her professional career spans over 15 years, and
Born in Damascus in 1997, Abdalrahman Alqalaq is a Syrian-Palestinian poet, author, and performer who fled to Germany in 2015. In 2017, he completed a cultural year at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe and in 2022 he released his debut poetry collection in Arabic »24«, through the elles publishing house in Cairo.
Ernst Paul Dörfler, born in 1950 in Kemberg near Lutherstadt Wittenberg, holds a doctorate in ecochemistry. His book »Back to Nature?« (1986) became a cult book of the East German environmental movement. He has been awarded numerous prizes, including the EURONATUR Prize of the European Natural Heritage Foundation. In 2019,
Miriam Rürup is director of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies. Before assuming this post, she was director of the Institute for the History of German Jews in Hamburg from 2012 to 2020. Prior to that, she worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute
born 1982 in Frankfurt am Main. Studies in German Literature, American Studies and History in Berlin, as well as Literary Writing in Leipzig. Writes stage plays, radio plays and fiction. Translations of stage plays, literary essays and poetry by, among others, Caryl Churchill, Wayne Koestenbaum, Pamela Carter und Rosmarie Waldrop.
*2012 in Berlin, was awarded the THEO Prize for Young Literature in 2022 for »Die magische Geschichte von Ebbe und Flut«. He was inspired during a stay with his grandmother by the North Sea after visiting a Moor Museum. He is in 4th grade, writes fantastic stories, and loves graphic
*2014 in Munich, was awarded the THEO Prize for Young Literature in 2022 for his short stories »Gespenster I-IV«. He is in the 2nd grade at Windmühlenberg Elementary School in Berlin. Jona Valentin likes to draw and paint and loves to dive into his fantasy worlds. He likes visiting the
*2011 in Berlin, was inspired by texts by Martin Piekar to start writing during the first lockdown – writing poetry in the second. He was awarded at THEO 2021 for his poem »Terrassenmassakerkinder versus Zelebrators«, which was described as »a battle against modern apocalyptic horsemen and contemporary evils such as
born in 1958, is a publisher, book designer and author. She worked closely with her partner Jörg Schröder [1938–2020] since 1981 at the publishing house März Verlag. From 1990 to 2018 they developed the first desktop publishing project »Schröder erzählt«. She has also been a regular blogger for the »taz«
born in 1987, completed an apprenticeship in publishing at Suhrkamp Verlag, after which he worked in the editorial and the foreign rights department. He then studied German literature and Scandinavian studies in Berlin. From 2012, he worked as an editor at Matthes & Seitz Berlin. In 2021, he relaunched März
born in 1986 in Ankara, studied Turkish language and literature at Boğaziçi Üniversitesi in Istanbul. The author and LGBTIQ* activist has published four story collections and one novel and co-founded the #MeToo movement in the Turkish publishing industry. Due to political and gender repression in her home country, she now
born in Berlin in 1937, is one of the most important German theater and film directors. His career took him from the Munich Kammerspiele via Zurich and Bremen to Berlin, where he assembled a top-class ensemble at the Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer and created legendary productions. As director of drama
