Tristan Marquardt & Andreas Töpfer / Heike Geißler / Radka Denemarková - 40th Freiburg Literature Talk: Three Readings with Discussion

Description

Tristan Marquardt & Andreas Töpfer: catalog of catalogs
Moderation: Martin Bruch Catalogs about friendship and love, emptiness, light and sleep, about astonishing sayings and forms of lies as well as lists in everyday language that are rarely used but quite practical. In this masterful artist's book, words by Tristan Marquardt and drawings by Andreas Töpfer engage in a poetic dialogue — searching for a new language to describe the world. The "catalog of catalogs" (kookbooks, 2026) presents an inspiringly clever, witty, and pointed arrangement of feelings, things, and phenomena. The two word and image artists have been connected since Tristan Marquardt's poetry collections "das amortisiert sich nicht" (2013) and "scrollen in tiefsee" (2018), both published by kookbooks, founded in 2003 by the freelance graphic designer, illustrator, and draftsman Andreas Töpfer with Daniela Seel. During the literature talk, Töpfer will draw live during Marquardt's reading. Heike Geißler: Michaela Kohlhaas
Moderation: Annette Pehnt In her daring reinterpretation (Suhrkamp, 2026), Heike Geißler brings Heinrich von Kleist's vengeful horse dealer Michael Kohlhaas from the 16th century into the present and transforms him into the rebellious cemetery caretaker Michaela.
Fueled by experienced arbitrariness and powerlessness, she becomes defiant and embarks on a merciless revenge campaign against all the greedy and merciless. Where Michael Kohlhaas murders and plunders, she reduces her city to rubble with the sheer force of her words and thoughts: escalation, exaggeration, sabotage, and show are her weapons. As a citizen who disregards rules and authority, she is declared insane. But once she has ignited resistance, it spreads uncontrollably. Her goal is nothing less than a new composition of the world. "Heike Geißler writes the fastest, most lively resistance prose of contemporary German literature," judges the FAZ. She discusses her tender, stinking, cursing, loving heroine with her fellow writer Annette Pehnt. Radka Denemarková: "Chocolate Blood"
Moderation: Thomas Geiger "A life-changing time travel" (SZ), "an ultimate accelerant for the mind" (Die Presse), "a magic mirror" (Olga Tokarczuk): In "Chocolate Blood" (Hoffmann und Campe, 2026, translated by Eva Profousová), the multiple award-winning Czech author Radka Denemarková takes us into the small writer's studio of Božena Němcová, who writes a patriotic fairy tale with a heavy hand, though she herself does not believe in its message. Her French contemporary George Sand resists the constraints of conventions and writes novels with a light touch. On the other side of the Atlantic, J. D. Rockefeller, the first billionaire in history, builds his empire on a thick, brown raw material. In her new masterpiece, Radka Denemarková tells the story of the 19th century and its protagonists: globally spanning, highly relevant, brilliant. Coming from the Frankfurt Book Fair, which this year honors Czechia as the guest country, the author, playwright, essayist, and translator also has her second novel of the year, "Kobold," published in German. ---
Photos: Tristan Marquardt © Dirk Skiba, Andreas Töpfer © private, Heike Geißler © Heike Steinweg, Radka Denemarková © Karel Cudlín Sponsors: Cultural Office of Freiburg, Ministry of Science, Research and 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, 15–18:00
Location: Literature House Freiburg, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/7 Euro Literature Talk
Literature House

Highlights

• Readings by Tristan Marquardt, Andreas Töpfer, and Heike Geißler
• Moderation by Martin Bruch and Annette Pehnt
• Live drawing during the reading

General Information

The 40th Freiburg Literature Talk offers a platform for three outstanding readings. Tristan Marquardt and Andreas Töpfer present their work 'catalog of catalogs', while Heike Geißler offers her modern adaptation of Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas. The event takes place at the Literature House Freiburg.

Location

Bertoldstraße 17, 79098 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

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