Martina Hefter / Arne Rautenberg / Julia Weber - 40th Freiburg Literature Talk: Three Readings with Conversation

Description

Martina Hefter: Looking after the Sun
Moderation: Annette Pehnt Iona Bartschok sees the future so towering over a lake in Leipzig's south that she wants to plunge into it. Five thousand years, far enough away from the present, but just close enough for her new project. The installation artist spends the summer in a converted industrial hall in the middle of an artificially flooded open-cast mining region, characterized by spoil heaps and an ever-present wind. She seeks distance from her city life after a painter spray-painted one of her most important artworks, a treehouse, with the word "Bullshit." A dog runs up to her, the rebellious niece of her landlord stands at the door, and outside, as the wind increases and the rain floods the streets, life forcefully pushes back into the hall.
As in her novel "Hey guten Morgen, wie geht es dir?" awarded the German Book Prize 2024, the writer and performance artist Martina Hefter succeeds with "Looking after the Sun" (Klett-Cotta, 2026) in creating an atmospherically charged narrative. About a woman who sets out, as light-footed as it is existential. Arne Rautenberg: 19 Doors
Moderation: Katharina Knüppel "Among the German lyricists of the present, Arne Rautenberg is a wondrous double and triple talent," writes literary scholar and poet Heinrich Detering. Light-footed and steady, he balances his poetry collections, children's verses, and visual art works at the boundaries of genres, between lyric and graphics, image and text. The latest volume "19 Doors" (Wunderhorn, 2026) gathers "lyrical mobiles, graceful little art machines" (FAZ), driven by the wind blowing in Rautenberg's Schleswig-Holstein homeland. The sea and the coastal landscape form one of the poetic resonance spaces where nature and language connect. The verses also lead to Rome, which the author explores as a fellow at Villa Massimo, and repeatedly into art and literary history. And behind the 19 doors, into an unconscious realm, to the origin of language, its stubbornness – where it is magic, wonder, and risk. Julia Weber: Because I am Ruth
Moderation: Martin Bruch A work that stands out from Swiss contemporary literature: In her third novel, Julia Weber boldly, sensually, and unwaveringly tells the story of Ruth, who is born with a fur and has a magical access to the world. Her story unfolds like a long, fantastic dream and touches on questions of human and animal existence, violence, and community. "For me, art has a lot to do with openness and comfort and should still be a place that shows the world mercilessly," says the author. Her story is carried by a language that translates such contradictions into a vividly reflective view of the world as it is or could be. After her novels "Immer ist alles schön" and "Die Vermengung," Julia Weber has worked for ten years on "Because I am Ruth" (Limmat, 2026) – a narrative cosmos imbued with the power of transformation.
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Photos: Martina Hefter © Maximilian Gödecke, Arne Rautenberg © Birgit Rautenberg, Julia Weber © Ayse Yavas Sponsors: Cultural Office of Freiburg City, Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg, Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau, Guzzoni-Federer Foundation, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank
Cooperation partners: Theater im Marienbad, Bookstore jos fritz
Cultural partner: SWR Culture Date: 7.11.2026, 10–13:00
Location: Literature House Freiburg, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/7 Euro Literature Talk
Literature House

Highlights

• Readings by Martina Hefter, Arne Rautenberg, and Julia Weber
• Moderation by Annette Pehnt and Katharina Knüppel
• Part of the 40th Freiburg Literature Talk

General Information

The 40th Freiburg Literature Talk takes place at the Literature House Freiburg and offers a platform for three renowned authors. The event includes readings and conversations that provide deeper insights into the writers' works.

Location

Bertoldstraße 17, 79098 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

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