Uploaded September 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
What does it mean to be white? With this question, Claudia Rankine, award-winning author of the poem »Citizen«, continues her examination of race and racism in the United States. For her latest volume, a collage of essays, poems, and images, she details conversations with white people – friends as well as chance acquaintances – about their whiteness. »Rankine writes with disarming intimacy and searing honesty.« [Kirkus Reviews]
Moderation: Toby Ashraf
///
Was bedeutet es, weiß zu sein? Mit dieser Frage setzt Claudia Rankine, preisgekrönte Autorin des Langgedichts »Citizen«, ihre Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema race und Rassismus in den USA fort. Für ihren aktuellen Band, eine Collage aus Essays, Gedichten und Bildern, hat sie das Gespräch mit weißen Personen – Freund:innen ebenso wie Zufallsbekanntschaften – gesucht und sie zu deren Weißsein befragt. »Rankine schreibt mit entwaffnender Intimität und erschütternder Ehrlichkeit.« [Kirkus Reviews]
Moderation: Toby Ashraf
Lektorat: Donald Futers
Purchase the book via: kulturkaufhaus.de/de/detail/ISBN-9783959054324/Rankine-Claudia/Claudia-Rankine.-WAS-WENN?wt_mc=koop.ma_product.yt.ilb2022.
STAY TUNED
Website: literaturfestival.com
Instagram: instagram.com/ilb_festival
Facebook: facebook.com/internationalesliteraturfestivalberlin
Twitter: twitter.com/ilb_festival
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/internationales-literaturfestival-berlin
Newsletter: civicrm.literaturfestival.com/newsletteranmeldung
What does it mean to be white? With this question, Claudia Rankine, award-winning author of the poem »Citizen«, continues her examination of race and racism in the United States. For her latest volume, a collage of essays, poems, and images, she details conversations with white people – friends as well as chance acquaintances – about their whiteness. »Rankine writes with disarming intimacy and searing honesty.« [Kirkus Reviews]
Moderation: Toby Ashraf
///
Was bedeutet es, weiß zu sein? Mit dieser Frage setzt Claudia Rankine, preisgekrönte Autorin des Langgedichts »Citizen«, ihre Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema race und Rassismus in den USA fort. Für ihren aktuellen Band, eine Collage aus Essays, Gedichten und Bildern, hat sie das Gespräch mit weißen Personen – Freund:innen ebenso wie Zufallsbekanntschaften – gesucht und sie zu deren Weißsein befragt. »Rankine schreibt mit entwaffnender Intimität und erschütternder Ehrlichkeit.« [Kirkus Reviews]
Moderation: Toby Ashraf
Lektorat: Donald Futers
Purchase the book via: kulturkaufhaus.de/de/detail/ISBN-9783959054324/Rankine-Claudia/Claudia-Rankine.-WAS-WENN?wt_mc=koop.ma_product.yt.ilb2022.
STAY TUNED
Website: literaturfestival.com
Instagram: instagram.com/ilb_festival
Facebook: facebook.com/internationalesliteraturfestivalberlin
Twitter: twitter.com/ilb_festival
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/internationales-literaturfestival-berlin
Newsletter: civicrm.literaturfestival.com/newsletteranmeldung

![ISABEL ALLENDE: My name is Emilia del Valle (EN)
Deutsch: https://youtube.com/live/iJRNYTamWmE?feature=share
A character you won’t forget: Emilia del Valle, the daughter of a Chilean aristocrat and an Irish nun, is born in San Francisco in 1866 and raised in poverty in Mexico by her stepfather. At seventeen, she travels to Chile, determined to work as a journalist covering the looming civil war—or is it love and the mystery of her origins that draw her there? One thing is certain: Emilia is a writer, an adventurer—and a young woman determined to forge her own path.
Few authors are as adept as Isabel Allende at confronting her heroines with the horrors and upheavals of history while allowing them to remain fully visible in their individuality. Allende herself, who became a refugee during the Chilean military coup, knows such fates firsthand. Perhaps that’s why she understands so well the power of storytelling and the importance of female self-empowerment. She has been a frequent guest at ilb—not only with her many bestsellers, but also as a sharp observer of the history of the South American continent. In this anniversary year, she celebrates the German premiere of »Mein Name ist Emilia del Valle« [trans. Svenja Becker] at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
»Isabel Allende is a magnificent storyteller, writing with deep compassion and insight. Her place as an icon of world literature is beyond question.« [Khaled Hosseini]
Isabel Allende will participate in the event via live digital connection.
Moderated by Marie Kaiser
Read by Katja Riemann
Simultaneous translation by Tuesday Bhambry and Felix Pahl
This event was held in English with simultaneous translation into German and selected readings in German.
The anniversary program is generously supported by the LOTTO Foundation Berlin.
Our Website: https://literaturfestival.com/
Our Instagram-Account: https://www.instagram.com/ilb_festival/ ISABEL ALLENDE: My name is Emilia del Valle (EN)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WY0mMZYXz7g/mqdefault.jpg)
![Patrice Douglass on Toni Morrisons Essays [engl.]
Essays were a sociopolitical and aesthetic medium of reflection for Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, through which she demonstrated a stylistically elegant and forceful moral stance. Assistant Professor of Gender and Womens Studies Patrice D. Douglass (Berkeley University) lectures on Morrison’s essayistic work. Patrice Douglass on Toni Morrisons Essays [engl.]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WjzB_pqzfVk/mqdefault.jpg)
![ILB & DAS BLAUE SOFA. »I AM COPYING DOWN FROM THE BEGINNING« Jokha Alharthi & Geetanjali Shree
Two International Booker Prize winners, two novels about social change: in »Our City that Year« [tr. Daisy Rockwell], Geetanjali Shree processes the destruction of a mosque in Ayodhya, India, by religious extremists in 1992 to create a polyphonic portrait of a fractured society. In »Celestial Bodies« [tr. Marilyn Booth], Jokha Alharthi tells of the lives of three sisters in the Omani village of al-Awafi – caught between tradition and the dawn of a new order.
In cooperation with Das Blaue Sofa Bertelsmann
With Geetanjali Shree, Jokha Alharthi
Moderated by Marie Kaiser
This event was held in English.
Our Website: https://literaturfestival.com/
Our Instagram-Account: https://www.instagram.com/ilb_festival/ ILB & DAS BLAUE SOFA. »I AM COPYING DOWN FROM THE BEGINNING« Jokha Alharthi & Geetanjali Shree](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WvI85aS7yD0/mqdefault.jpg)

![ABDULRAZAK GURNAH: The Art of Writing
»White Europeans who read Gurnah come to understand their own provinciality.« [ZEIT]
When Abdulrazak Gurnah presented his novel »Afterlives« at the ilb in 2022, it became impressively clear how far-reaching – and how quietly revolutionarily – his literature reflects historical relations of violence. In »Afterlives«, Gurnah explores the entanglement of East African history with German imperialism without moralizing. His novels combine a joy in storytelling with an unpretentious, restrained tone and deep empathy for his protagonists – often young people searching for their place in the world. »Gurnah lets his characters, and with them the reader, break new ground« [WELT]. To mark the start of the anniversary, the British-Tanzanian Nobel Prize winner is now returning to the festival. In conversation with author and Bachmann Prize winner Sharon Dodua Otoo, he offers insights into the foundations of his writing, his literary influences, and his worldview. Otoo’s novel »Adas Raum« is a radically unconventional work that negotiates memory and history through a layered journey from Ghana in 1459 to present-day Berlin. Together, they discuss recurring themes in Gurnah’s work: exile and migration, colonial continuities – and writing as both political and poetic practice.
The German book premiere of »Theft«, the new novel by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah, is being organized by the Lit:Potsdam literature festival.
It takes the form of a public reading on 11 September 2025 at 7 pm in the Nikolaisaal, Potsdam.
The anniversary program is made possible by the LOTTO Foundation Berlin.
With Abdulrazak Gurnah, Sharon Dodua Otoo
Read by Frank Arnold
Simultaneous translation by Lilian Astrid Geese and Silvia Schreiber
This event was held in English with selected reading parts in German.
Our Website: https://literaturfestival.com/
Our Instagram-Account: https://www.instagram.com/ilb_festival/ ABDULRAZAK GURNAH: The Art of Writing](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XW-Ts_wyuHU/mqdefault.jpg)

![Shehan Karunatilaka: Die sieben Monde des Maali Almeida // The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (EN)
Colombo, Sri Lanka, Anfang der 90er Jahre: Maali, ein Kriegsfotograf, erwacht eines Morgens im Jenseits. Er hat keine Ahnung, wer ihn mitten im Bürgerkrieg umgebracht hat und warum. Um das herauszufinden, bleiben ihm sieben Tage. Und er will zwei nahestehenden Menschen mitteilen, wo die Negative brisanter Fotos versteckt sind, die Sri Lanka aufwühlen und der Welt zeigen sollen, was hier geschieht. »Die sieben Monde des Maali Almeida« [Ü: Hannes Meyer] wurde 2022 mit dem Booker Prize ausgezeichnet.
Es liest Komi Togbonou.
Es moderiert Barbara Wahlster.
Die Veranstaltung findet auf Englisch statt.
//
Colombo, Sri Lanka, in the early 1990s: Maali, a war photographer, wakes up one morning in the afterlife. He has no idea who killed him in the middle of the civil war and why. To find out, he has seven days left. And he wants to tell two people close to him where the negatives of explosive photos are hidden that will stir Sri Lanka and show the world what is happening here. »The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida«, translated into German by Hannes Meyer, was awarded the 2022 Booker Prize.
Read by Komi Togbonou.
Hosted by Barbara Wahlster.
The event is in English. Shehan Karunatilaka: Die sieben Monde des Maali Almeida // The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (EN)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z6SwiejRmGw/mqdefault.jpg)

![Madame Nielsen: Lamento
»Lamento«, the latest novel by the multitalented artist Madame Nielsen, tells of a passionate and ultimately painful relationship between a writer and a theater producer, and of the impossibility of reconciling the magic of infatuation with daily life. »Madame Nielsen dissects the nature of love and infatuation, with disaster always appearing as an all-too-obvious possibility and danger« [Berlingske].
Moderation: Alexander Lehnert
///
»Lamento«, der jüngste Roman der Universalkünstlerin Madame Nielsen, erzählt von einer leidenschaftlichen und letztlich schmerzlichen Beziehung zwischen einer Schriftstellerin und einem Theatermacher sowie von der Unmöglichkeit, den Zauber der Verliebtheit mit dem Alltag in Einklang zu bringen. »Madame Nielsen seziert die Natur der Liebe und der Verliebtheit, wobei die Katastrophe immer als eine allzu naheliegende Möglichkeit und Gefahr erscheint« [Berlingske].
Moderation: Alexander Lehnert
Übersetzung: Hannes Langendörfer
Purchase the book via: https://www.kulturkaufhaus.de/de/detail/ISBN-9783462001273/Nielsen-Madame/Lamento?wt_mc=koop.ma_product.yt.ilb2022.
STAY TUNED
Website: https://literaturfestival.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilb_festival/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/internationalesliteraturfestivalberlin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ilb_festival
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/internationales-literaturfestival-berlin/
Newsletter: https://civicrm.literaturfestival.com/newsletteranmeldung Madame Nielsen: Lamento](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Zdeu85bgrjQ/mqdefault.jpg)
