Litklub
- Projects & Grants
- Litklub
The Literature Club (Litklub) invited book lovers on literary journeys to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, opening up new perspectives.
IN SHORT
- Founded in 1985 and run by Public Eye until 2008, when artlink took over and managed the project until it came to its end in 2022.
- Directed at all avid readers, as well as at libraries
- In partnership with Litprom, an initiative by the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair).
What was the Litklub?
Literary voices from Africa, Asia and Latin America are often overlooked and relegated to the sidelines in the German-speaking world. As a platform for literary exchange, the Litklub built bridges between writers from these regions and readers in Switzerland. Each year, Litklub members were sent four exciting works of fiction in translation, handpicked by the artlink team — literary scholars, avid readers and authors.
Why was the Litklub important?
At the heart of the Litklub was a commitment to supporting writers from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Litklub opened up access to the literary voices of these regions for German-speaking readers in Switzerland, inviting them to see the world from different perspectives through stories rooted in realities beyond the Western experience.
'Reflexe' - the Litklub podcast
Listen to interviews and conversations with authors and translators of literary works featured in the Litklub in the podcast 'Reflexe' (in German).
In this episode from July 2021, we speak to Uruguayan novelist, Mercedes Rosende, and German translator, Peter Kultzen, about the ironic plot, the lovable criminals and the special colloquial language in the crime novel 'Krokodilstränen', published by Unionsverlag in 2018.
In this episode from July 2021, we speak to Palestinian author, Mazen Maarouf, and German translator, Larissa Bender, about fiction as a way of processing war trauma, child protagonists and the connection between language and violence in the short story collection 'Ein Witz für ein Leben', published by Unionsverlag in 2020.
In this episode from July 2021, we talk to Thomas Brovot – the German translator of Comorian author Ali Zamir's novel 'Die Schiffbrüchige' – about the uniquely poetic language of the drowning narrator. We also speak to Professor of African Studies Rémi Armand Tchokothe about the tragedy of European migration policy in the Comores and how this is reflected in the plot of 'Die Schiffbrüchige', published by Unionsverlag in 2020.
In this episode from May 2022, we talk to Christa Morgenrath and Eva Wernecke, the editors of the anthology 'Imagine Africa 2060 – Geschichten zur Zukunft eines Kontinents', published by Peter Hammer Verlag in 2019. They speak about how they approached and implemented their idea of publishing a collection of stories by African authors devoted exclusively to visions of the future.
In this episode from May 2022, we speak with Angolan-Portuguese author Yara Nakahanda Monteiro and German translator Michael Kegler about memory, creating characters born into a struggle for freedom that is not their own, and the specific translation challenges in 'Schwerkraft der Tränen', published by Haymon Verlag in 2022.