To mark Uwe Johnson’s 92nd birthday, Marcel Beyer will read from a new, previously unpublished text titled “Sight: Seeing, Reading, Thinking”
This year, too, we want to celebrate Uwe Johnson’s birthday on July 20. Our guest will be Marcel Beyer. His body of work is diverse, ranging from poetry to epic fiction, essays, and plays.
To mark Uwe Johnson’s 92nd birthday, Marcel Beyer will read from a new, previously unpublished text titled “Augenlicht. Seeing, Reading, Thinking” and will then engage in a conversation with Thomas Geiger, formerly of the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, about the relationship between new texts and old images: how new images overlay, supplant, or replace old ones, and how old texts guide and comment on the perception and interpretation of new images. What remains, and what emerges, when fiction and contemporary history collide in Uwe Johnson’s stories? Does storytelling also preserve a memory of something that may never have happened?
Marcel Beyer was born in 1965. In his works, he repeatedly explores German history. In 2016, he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize, Germany’s most prestigious literary award.
This event is a collaboration between the Uwe Johnson Society and the Literaturhaus Rostock.
You are all cordially invited—feel free to bring a guest—to celebrate Uwe Johnson’s birthday with us. Admission is free; we simply ask that you register (no obligation) by July 19 at reservierung@literaturhaus-rostock.de.