Dear Nyana,
Today I´d like to introduce three important literature institutions of Bremen: the virtual Literaturhaus Bremen, the Bremer Literaturkontor and the city library (Bremer Stadtbibliothek). The Literaturhaus and the Kontor have both their offices in the Villa Ichon next to the Bremer Theater am Goetheplatz.
The Villa Ichon
To get an impression about the work of the virtual Literaturhaus please start the audio and listen to the manageress Heike Müller:
Heike Müller – the manageress of the virtual Literaturhaus Bremen
Just one floor under the office of the Literaturhaus there is the office of the Bremer Literaturkontor, with which I organize the publication series called “MiniLit” and the reading-series “Doppelpack”. Angelika Sinn, the manageress of the Kontor gives you a short introduction about the work of the Literaturkontor in the next audio:
Angelika Sinn – the mangeress of the Bremer Literaturkontor
On Saturday (tomorrow) there is a public reading of the literature week (LW) in the Villa Ichon, organized by the Kontor. The Bremen writers Heidrun Immendorf, Jörn Birkholz and Ian Watson will be reading. I will be on stage too, as the presenter of the evening. The title of the reading is “Durchleuchtet” (maybe you could translate it to English as “shine through”) – the topic of the LW this year is: monitoring.
I´m looking forward to this event. Another feature of the Bremer Literaturkontor is the open writing workshop, which takes place every two weeks on a Monday evening. It´s an excellent offer for young authors (to the age of 30), who want to discuss their work in a group of writers. The conductor of the group, the writer Colin Böttger, gives you a very short impression of his work in this group (he had just a couple of minutes for me in a brief break, because he had to continue his work with the five writers, who took part in the workshop last Monday):
The writing workshop with Colin Böttger
Last but not least, there is the city library. Not only will you find in the impressive rooms of the library an amazing amount of books, but there are also a lot of public readings, lectures and discussions about literature. There I do a lecture series on contemporary German-language authors as well. As an institution the city library is also a supporter of all the important literature festivals and events in Bremen. No less it is a very nice place to read books, journals and newspapers.
The City Library/Stadtbibliothek Bremen
By the way, the city library is the place, where the LW started yesterday and will continue today with another public reading, that I will moderate. All three institutions I have introduced are partners of the LW and help to make it happen. In part, they are the reason that we have this gerat literature festival every year in Bremen. I will give you a report about the first days of the LW at the begining of next week.
The first day of the literature week – with the BOM13 online magazin & the writer Sönke Busch
Enjoy your weekend.
Jens
Wow, the virtual Literature house is so brilliant and I am so jealous! I love that it has all these programmes from published writers to schools! We do not have anything like that really.
Last year, Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation launched a poetry library in Kampala. It is the only one I can think of that is quite similar. The Africa Poetry Fund is a collaborative venture to establish accessible and user friendly small poetry libraries in Africa to support aspiring and established poets giving them access to contemporary poetry in books and journals, and serving as a resource for poets interested in publication in Africa and around the world.Reference
So the Bremer Literaturkontor are literary agents as well?
How are the workshops and mentoring of the writers and publication of anthologies funded?Reference
The Kontor does not really function as a literary agent, but it´s a place where you can go if you are a writer looking for an orientation, opportunities there are for publishing, publishing houses that could be interested in your writings or where you could go to do a reading. Also, it helps with a small financial support, if you are an author of Bremen and you want to present your new book in a reading (Bremer Buchpremiere). It´s more of a network for writers, an institution who supports the local literature scene and organizes projects, workshops and events – and for sure there would be much more to tell about the work of the Kontor.
The workshops, the mentoring of the writers, and publication of anthologies are funded with the money that the Kontor gets every year from the government as a cultural institution. Also, the Kontor is a club, if you like you can be a member, then you have to pay a small contribution every year (but you don’t have to be a member to use the offers of the Kontor). The contributions the members pay is also a part of the budget, which the Kontor can use for their work. So, if you are a member of the Kontor, you support the local literature scene with your contribution. Beyond that, sometimes there are private sponsors who like to support the work of the Kontor with a donation. The MiniLit publication for instance is completely funded by a private sponsor.Reference