Tuesday 9 October 2012

The Pavilion at dawn....



More photos of the Dawn Pavilion here...
And photos of the NZ@Frankfurt Pavilion here...

A Cry Comes From the Dawn Pavilion


Tuesday 9 October 2012, 6.30pm Meow, 9 Edward Street, Wellington

While Frankfurt slept and the New Zealand Pavilion lay empty, we created another pavilion at the opposite end of the world to celebrate New Zealand as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The evening, curated and hosted by Pip Adam, featured new poetry and prose from New Zealand, Mexican folk tales, Spanish poetry, German fiction and poems from Switzerland, Italy and Ireland. 

Pip Adam completed her PhD Creative Writing at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012. Her book of short stories Everything We Hoped For is published by Victoria University Press, and won the Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction 2011. She currently teaches Creative Writing and Creative Non-Fiction on Massey University’s Wellington campus. Last week she was named as an Arts Foundation New Generation Awardee.

Emma Barnes lives in the Aro Valley in a house that was once a post office. Originally from Christchurch, Emma spent three years living in Japan, teaching English and writing poetry. She has poems coming out in the next Landfall and the next JAAM and has been published previously in both magazines as well as Turbine, Trout, FourW and a variety of other publications. She has been lucky enough to have two poems selected for Best New Zealand Poems, one in 2008 and one in 2010.

Geoff Cochrane has published several highly-regarded collections of poetry, including Aztec Noon: Poems 1976-1992 and Into India, Acetylene, Vanilla Wine, Hypnic Jerks and the novels Tin Nimbus, named a 1996 Commonwealth Best First Book Prize regional finalist, and Blood. His poems have also appeared in journals including Sport and Printout and in several anthologies. Geoff’s latest book of poetry is The Bengal Engine’s Mango Afterglow.

Kerry Donovan-Brown moved to Wellington in 2006 from Waikuku Beach. He began his studies at Toi Whakaari and very gradually found his way to the IIML. For his MA he is writing a novella (or sometimes a short novel, if he’s aiming to impress) called Lamplighter which is set on the brink of a vast swamp and concerns a man who wards off the dangers that supposedly dwell there. He does this by lighting lamps along its edge. Kerry has a story in Turbine 10 and is looking forward to being published in the up-and-coming Common magazine.


Desirée Gezentsvey has an MA in Creative Writing – Scriptwriting (IIML, VUW) and an MA in Literary Translation (VUW). She has published the bilingual poetry book Next Time Around/la próxima vez (SteeleRoberts), and the poetry/music pieces “Under the Southern Stars” and “An Ocean Between Us” (RNZ). Her play Nuclear Family won the Best Stageplay Award (Script) at the 2011 Moondance International Festival and has toured to Adelaide, London, Edinburgh, and recently Wellington’s Circa Theatre. Her short film screenplay Fishing for Waves was a semi-finalist at the 2012 MIFF. She recently translated the book Náhuatl Stories: Indigenous Tales from Mexico by Pablo Gonzáles Casanova (VUP – and going to Frankfurt).

Annabel Hawkins is a third year journalism and expressive arts student at Massey University in Wellington. She likes words and pictures, and somehow they come together on the page. Her work has been published in MASSIVE magazine and spans a broad range of genres including poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction.

Charlotte Simmonds usually lives in Wellington where she sometimes writes poetry, prose and the occasional play. Her work has been published in literary journals such as Sport, Hue & Cry, The Iowa Review and Turbine. Her book The World's Fastest Flower was nominated for a Montana Book Award. One of her scripts, The Story of Nohome Neville and Unwholesome Clare Who Worked in the Kitchens and Smelt Like a Dish, was nominated for a Chapman-Tripp. Clearly if the title had been concise enough to fit on the certificate it would have won.

Marco Sonzogni, translator and writer, is Director of the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation and a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University. He has translated all of Primo Levi’s poetry into English, and the translations have been published in numerous journals including PN Review. His Italian-English translation of Oliver Scharpf’s collection of poetry, A Choice of Upper Cuts, came out in 2010. He is currently translating Seamus Heaney’s collected poems into Italian.

Sally-Ann Spencer translates from German to English and is currently writing a PhD on translation at VUW. Her translation of Juli Zeh’s The Method came out with Random House earlier this year. The Method is Zeh’s fourth novel (two others are available in English) and was followed by a volume on surveillance society, co-authored with Ilija Trojanow. Zeh also writes literary criticism, and an essay of hers on authenticity and fiction (tr. S. Spencer) will be featured in the next issue of Five Dials magazine.

Ross Woods, an Irishman who teaches Spanish in New Zealand, comes to us from Dublin via Kelburn. When he gets time away from his day job as a lecturer at Victoria University, he likes to spend his spare time translating poetry, especially that of his friend, the Andalusian poet Pablo Valdivia. A selection of these translations will appear in the first issue of Common magazine this coming December. A translation of Valdivia’s debut collection, Breathing Underwater, will be published by Guernica Editions in 2013.

The Temporary Literaturhaus is a project of the Goethe-Institut New Zealand, the New Zealand Book Council and the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, with the support of Creative New Zealand. 

Thursday 20 September 2012

A Cry Comes from the Dawn Pavilion


A Celebration of the Opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair


While Frankfurt sleeps and the New Zealand Pavilion lies empty, waiting to be filled within hours by the crowds, we create another pavilion at the opposite end of the world to celebrate New Zealand as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Ours is a smaller pavilion in a borrowed lounge bar in an alley in Wellington. In this dawn pavilionslightly off the beaten track, slightly harder to findyou can enjoy an evening of writers and translators who may also come as a pleasant surprise in the New Zealand literary cityscape. It’s not who you’d automatically expect.

Join us for literary encounters, conversation and translation, chaired and curated by Pip Adam.

Tuesday 9 October 2012, from 6.30pm. Free entry.
Meow, 9 Edward Street, Wellington


The Temporary Literaturhaus is a project of the Goethe-Institut New Zealand, the New Zealand Book Council and the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, with the support of Creative New Zealand.

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Poetry Cabaret II

 
Poetry, Music and Conversation with Jan Wagner, Bill Manhire, Fergus Barrowman and Lorenzo Bühne


On Tuesday 11 September Poetry Cabaret is returning to Meow with Jan Wagner, Bill Manhire, Fergus Barrowman and Lorenzo Bühne. Jan, Bill and Fergus will be talking and reading poetry, and Lorenzo will be performing musical adaptations of Jan's poems. Join us at 6.30pm!

Jan Wagner (b. 1971) is one of Germany’s leading young poets. He recently took part in the Poetry Parnassus preceding the Olympics with poets from around the world, including New Zealand’s Bill Manhire. Jan’s work has been translated into thirty languages, and poems from his most recent collection Australien (Australia) were included in Sport 40. He is also a translator and a literary critic.


Poetry Cabaret II
Meow, 9 Edward Street, Wellington, Tuesday 11 September, 6.30pm, free entry

The Temporary Literaturhaus is a project of the Goethe-Institut New Zealand, the New Zealand Book Council and the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, with the support of Creative New Zealand.

Sunday 22 July 2012

Author and translator Michael Hofmann in New Zealand

Rutherford House, Lecture Theatre 2, Victoria University (Pipitea Campus Wellington), 9 August 2012, 6pm free entry

Copyright: Ulla Montan
The New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation in association with the Goethe-Institut and the International Institute of Modern Letters invite you to the 2012 Annual Lecture in Literary Translation "Six or Seven Beginnings" by Michael Hofmann, award-winning poet, translator and critic. Earlier this year he was awarded the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Michael Hofmann was born in 1957 in Freiburg (Germany), but grew up in England and attended schools in Edinburgh and Winchester. He studied English Literature and Classics at the universities of Oxford, Regensburg (Germany), Trinity College Dublin, and Cambridge. Since 1983 he has been working as a freelance translator, author and literary critic.

In addition to book reviews, he has published several volumes of poetry. He has translated a large number of novels including works by Bertolt Brecht, Franz Kafka and Herta Müller. Recently published translations include Hans Fallada’s Alone in Berlin (2009) and Günter Eich’s poetry collection Angina Days (2010).

In 1995 he received the Independent newspaper’s Foreign Fiction Prize for the translation of the novel The Film Explainer by Gert Hofmann (his father). Other awards include the Schlegel-Tieck prize for his translations of Patrick Süskind’s The Double Bass (1988) and the Weidenfeld Oxford Translation Prize for Durs Grünbein’s Ashes for Breakfast. Michael Hofmann is Professor of English Literature at the University of Florida.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Biographies of the German Poets involved in the Berlin Poetry Night

The Participants: German Poets
Copyright: Photo: Marcus HammerschmittThe poet and writer Uwe Kolbe was born in East Berlin in 1957. After leaving school he met the German author Franz Führmann who was to become his mentor, and it was through Führmann that Kolbe had the opportunity to publish a number of poems. His first book, “Hineingeboren“ (Born into), was published in Weimar. Kolbe’s work was highly controversial and publication of his works was banned in the GDR. As a result of this, Kolbe worked increasingly as a translator of among others, the Spanish author, García Lorcas. As co-editor of the magazine Mikado he was able to circumvent his publication ban and continue to publish his own works. In 1985 Kolbe travelled in Western Europe and was a visiting lecturer at universities in Austin, Texas and Vienna. He moved to Hamburg in 1987 and received many prizes and awards, most recently, the Heinrich Mann Prize from the Academy of the Arts in Berlin in 2012. Between 1997 and 2002 he was head of the studio of literature and theatre at the University of Tübingen. Since then he has returned to live in Berlin and is one of Germany’s most well-known contemporary authors.

Copyright: gezettBrigitte Oleschinski was born in Köln in 1955. She studied Political Science at the Free University in Berlin and worked as a contemporary historian on issues concerning political repression in totalitarian systems. She has worked as a guest lecturer and translator, participated in poetry performances and collaborated on the internet project www.neuedichte.de. Oleschinski has published a poetry collection including “Mental Heat Control“ and “Your Passport is Not Guilty“ and was awarded the Peter Huchel Prize in 1998, the Ernst Meister Prize in 2001 and in 2004 the Erich Fried Prize. From 2003 and 2005, together with Indonesian artists, she performed the poetry performance “Laut Lesung” (According to Reading) in Germany, Indonesia and Mexico. Her poetry collection „Geisterströmung“ was published in 2004. She currently lives in Berlin as a freelance writer.

Copyright: Photo: Tanja KernweißUlrike Almut Sandig was born in 1979 in Großenhain and grew up near Dresden. Together with Marlen Pelny, she set up the literature project “augenpost”. After beginning a degree in journalism, she graduated with a master’s degree in Religious Studies and modern Indian Studies and made extended language study trips to India. Her first poetry collection “Zunder” was published in 2005, followed by “streumen” in 2007, for which Sandig was supported with a residency in Sydney. In 2006 Sandig was awarded the Meran Poetry Prize. Sandig has published poems, prose and radio stories and between 2007 and 2009 she was the editor of the literary magazine EDIT. The Südwestrundfunk radio station broadcast her first radio play “Hush little Baby” in 2008, directed by Robert Schoen. Her second radio play “Unter Wasser”, was broadcast in April 2010 and directed by Judith Lorentz. In 2009 Sandig was awarded the Leonce and Lena Prize. For her collection of stories “Flamingos”, which was published in 2010, Sandig was awarded a scholarship to spend time at the Literarisches Colloquium in Berlin.

Berlin Poetry Night on 14 June

We are delighted to welcome Aurélie Maurin from the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, the German host organisation for the Transit of Venus Poetry Exchange project.

Aurélie will introduce a selection of projects and programmes at the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin. Amongst them is the prestigious Zebra Poetry Film Festival a competition of the best poetry films! Prizes in the competition are awarded to a total value of € 10,000. The winners will be selected by an international jury in Berlin.

The different prize categories are:
– ZEBRA Prize for the Best Poetry Film, donated by the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin
– Goethe Film Prize, donated by the Goethe Institute
– Ritter Sport Film Prize, donated by Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co KG
– Audience Prize awarded by the radioeins jury

This year, for the first time, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival will also be making awards for poetry films in the categories Best First Film, Best Film for Tolerance and Best Poem Performance on Film. Children and young people award their own prize: ZEBRINO – the prize for the best film for children and young people. The young viewers will be deciding on the winner of the ZEBRINO award, the best poetry film for eight-to-twelve-year-olds.

Aurélie will present a selection of inspiring poetry films including films from New Zealand. Additionally, we are excited to hear more about the multilingual online poetry portal www.lyrikline.org 

If this is not enough for your lyrical mind, you can look forward to meeting three German poets from Berlin who will read from their work. We look forward to a truly filmic and lyrical Berlin night!

Berlin Poetry Night

Reading, Presentation, Conversation
14 June 2012, 5pm
New Zealand Film Archive Wellington
free entry

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Transit of Venus sparks international transit of poets

Six poets from opposite sides of the globe are meeting for a special once-in-a-lifetime experience next month.

The Transit of Venus Poetry Exchange brings together three German and three New Zealand poets to witness the Transit of Venus on June 6, followed by two public presentations in Wellington, where the poets will talk about the inspiration derived from their transit experiences.

The Transit of Venus is a rare astronomical phenomenon where Venus appears as a small dot gliding across the sun. On June 6, a series of celebrations will be centred at Tolaga Bay on the East Coast, where Captain James Cook anchored after witnessing this event in Tahiti in 1769.

The German poets visiting New Zealand are Uwe Kolbe, Brigitte Oleschinski and Ulrike Almut Sandig and will work alongside New Zealand poets Hinemoana Baker, Glenn Colquhoun and Chris Price in Tolaga Bay.

After the Transit, the group will head to Wellington to take part in creative workshops at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters.

New Zealand host and International Institute of Modern Letters chair Professor Bill Manhire says the poets’ visit offers a unique opportunity for an international exchange of language and culture.

“Poets have always gazed up at the stars, and it will be fascinating to watch how these creative minds spark off each other and to see how an event like the Transit of Venus inspires their work.”

In October the New Zealand poets complete the exchange by travelling to Berlin to meet up with their German counterparts and to reinterpret each other’s work with the help of translators in a unique cultural exchange.

The poets will then travel to Frankfurt to take part in a programme showcasing New Zealand’s literary and artistic endeavours as part of the Frankfurt Book Fair, where New Zealand is this year’s Guest of Honour.

The exchange is being organised by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, the Goethe-Institut New Zealand with funding support from the German Foreign Office, the Berlin Literaturwerkstatt and Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters.

Goethe-Institut director Bettina Senff said she was proud to be involved in such a creative endeavour that is not only of historical significance but would also highlight the talents of both countries’ poets.

Media and the public are invited to two public presentations in Wellington:

Passages: Reading around the Transit

Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington Wednesday 13 June 2012 6pm Free entry A panel discussion with readings: German and New Zealand poets respond to the Transit of Venus 2012 celebrations at Tolaga Bay, exploring the process of writing about this extraordinary astronomical phenomenon

Berlin Poetry Night

New Zealand Film Archive, Ghuznee St, Wellington Thursday 14 June 2012 5pm Free entry Listen to the poets from Berlin and to Aurélie Maurin from the Berlin Literaturwerkstatt introducing the ZEBRA poetry film award and the online poetry project LYRIKLINE.

For more information contact:

Lucy Orbell, Communications Adviser, Ministry for Culture and Heritage
04 496 6176
027 6222 774

Bill Manhire, International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University
04 463 6808
Bill.manhire[AT]vuw.ac.nz

Bettina Senff
Director
Goethe-Institut New Zealand
04 385 6924
arts[AT]wellington.goethe.org

Thursday 12 April 2012

Pioneering New Zealand writers leading the way into Europe

Join Elizabeth Knox, Jenny Pattrick, Damien Wilkins and Fergus Barrowman as they share their experiences of one of Europe’s premier literary events, the Leipzig Book Fair and Festival.

Four Wellingtonians have been part of New Zealand’s advance party into Europe as the literary world gears up for this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair devoted to New Zealand books. You can hear more about them, their experiences and how they think New Zealand’s literature will be received at the world’s biggest literary event in October. This event will be chaired by Anne Chamberlain (Director, Writers&Readers Week)

LEIPZIG READS at Cafe Meow, 6pm on 24th April. A Temporary Literaturhaus event.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

From Germany to NZ: Inka Parei in Wellington on 23rd March



German writer Inka Parei has been blogging from a campervan on the South Island as part of a mobile writer’s residency sponsored by the Goethe-Institut. You can read about her travels so far here. Inka’s first novel in English-language translation The Shadow Boxing Woman was published by Seagull last year. Inka and her translator Katy Derbyshire were recently nominated for the Best Translated Book Award. Inka’s second and third novels are also being translated by Katy for Seagull Books, and you can get a preview in the current issue of Sport.

Come along and meet Inka in Wellington on Friday 23rd March. This time the Temporary Literaturhaus will be “housed” by the Goethe-Institut in Wellington. Join us at 17.30 for a glass of wine before we get going at 18.00. Please RSVP by 21st March to arts@wellington.goethe.org.

Venue: Goethe-Institut, 150 Cuba Street
RSVP by 21st March to arts@wellington.goethe.org.

Sunday 11 March 2012

Jenny Erpenbeck in Wellington


“For a time this lake would hold up its mirror to the sky amid the Brandenburg hills, it would lie smooth between the oaks, alders and pines that were growing once more, and much later, after human beings appeared, it was given a name by them: Märkisches Meer.”
 Jenny Erpenbeck, Visitation, tr. Susan Bernofsky

The German title of Jenny Erpenbeck’s most recent novel is Heimsuchung, a word that contains the idea of home, of searching, of searching for home, of haunting, of punishment and affliction, all of which echo through the story of a house on the shore of a Brandenburg lake, built on a plot of land with a dark past. The English title Visitation also evokes visits, visitors and being visited, picking up on the ways in which the house is haunted by the passing of people and of time. Time and its passage are also the elusive substance of Jenny Erpenbeck’s  collection Dinge, die verschwinden, a book of farewells that explores disappearances of various kinds: of youth, memories, objects, and always, inescapably, of the present. An extract, translated by Susan Bernofsky, is included in the current issue of Sport. Wellingtonians can listen to Jenny Erpenbeck in conversation with Karen Leeder (Professor of German at Oxford University and also an expert on literary spectres and hauntings) at her Writers & Readers Week session on Monday 12 March. Karen will also be chairing a session on the art of literary translation with Jenny Erpenbeck and translators and poets Michael Hulse and Marco Sonzogni on Tuesday 13 March.

PS. Susan Bernofsky was recently awarded the prestigious and princely (15,000 Euro) Hermann Hesse Prize for her translation of Siddharta. Congratulations Susan!

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Mobile German Writer in NZ


German writer Inka Parei landed in New Zealand just in time for the “weather bomb” that announced the start of March. She will be travelling around the country in a campervan as part of a mobile writer’s residency sponsored by the Goethe-Institut. Readers will be able to follow her journey in German, English and Te Reo here. Inka recently appeared at the Festival Neue Literature in New York with five other contemporary German-language writers. She is the author of three novels, most recently Die Kältezentrale (for further info and an extract in English see the Festival Neue Literatur’s website). Her debut, published in English as The Shadow Boxing Woman by Seagull last year, has just been nominated for the Best Translated Book Award. Katy Derbyshire, the book’s English-language translator, is currently working on Inka’s second novel, to be published in English by Seagull as What Darkness Was (you can get a preview in the brand new issue of Sport).

Inka will be speaking about her work and her NZ travels at a Temporary Literaturhaus event in Wellington on Friday 23rd March.

Thursday 23 February 2012

What's on in Wellington and Beyond

February has been a busy month for many Temporary Literaturhaus participants. Here in Wellington the Fringe Festival is in full swing. If, like me, you didn’t catch Lorenzo Bühne at his first Fringe gig, you can head down to Happy on 29th Feb where he will be performing tracks from his brand-new album Wild Iron: New Zealand Poetry Adapted to Song. I had an excellent reason for not seeing the first show – I was listening to “edgy words” with four poets including Aleksandra Lane, whose first book in English (yes, she has two in Serbian already!) Birds of Clay had been launched a few days earlier. I can highly recommend Aleks’s poetry – and also her family’s Serbian home cooking and the gypsy music performed by her friends. This week Tina Makereti has also been having some multilingual adventures – read an interview here about the German translation of her work. Elizabeth Knox, who wrote a new Grim/m fairytale for our Lithaus launch, will be among the NZ writers travelling to Leipzig for the book fair next month, but in the next couple of weeks she’ll be appearing at literary festivals in Beijing and Shanghai. Hinemoana Baker is also on the road, with a poetry reading in New York next week. Right now I am eying the first (and currently only) bound proof of next month’s “Sport” with contributions from NZ and German writers (and their translators) including various Temporary Literaturhaus participants. The volume will be launched at Writers and Readers Week, which is drawing ever closer. I’m looking forward to the session with Jenny Erpenbeck (read an extract from Visitation here), discussions about the art of translation and a poetry masterclass with Bill Manhire – the names of the three chosen poets have been announced…
PS And the NZ International Arts Festival kicks off tonight!

Friday 17 February 2012

Looking forward...


A big thank-you to all those who participated in the launch of the Temporary Literaturhaus. It was a great week, but don’t despair if you missed it – the Temporary Literaturhaus will be returning towards the end of March and acclaimed German writer Inka Parei will be putting in an appearance. In the meantime, Wellingtonians can look forward to Writers and Readers Week.

Thursday 2 February 2012

NEWSLETTER for the Temporary Literaturhaus

If you would like to receive updates about Temporary Literaturhaus events and other literary happenings in Wellington please write to us at literaturhausnz@gmail.com and ask to be added to our email list. The launch week starts on 7th February!

Saturday 28 January 2012

Writers and Readers Week Programme Now Out


Everyone at the Temporary Literaturhaus was excited to see the full programme of Writers and Readers Week, released this week. There is plenty to look forward to from a translation perspective, including sessions with German writer Jenny Erpenbeck and a panel on “The Art of Translation”. More on that later – in the meantime, the Temporary Literaturhaus launches in just over a week... 

Monday 23 January 2012

Launch Week Programme for the Temporary Literaturhaus

This year New Zealand will be in the international literary spotlight as guest of honour at the world’s largest book fair in Frankfurt. From February onwards you can explore New Zealand’s literary connections with the rest of the world at Wellington’s Temporary Literaturhaus, a mobile literary festival. Join us at the launch week for readings, discussions, music and film.

Tues 7th February 2012:

Landscapes of Memory: Kate de Goldi and Lloyd Jones on writing and place
6pm City Gallery, Civic Square, Wellington

Weds 8th February 2012:

Anton Can do Magic, performed in German and English by Fiona McNamara and Ailsa Krefft
A fantastic quirky picture book by Ole Konnecke (published by award-winning Wellington publisher Gecko Press). Suitable for preschoolers (2-4 yrs) accompanied by an adult.
10.30-11.00am Wellington Central Library

Reading Stage 1
Short readings from current work by upcoming and established writers and translators from the Institute of Modern Letters, Massey University, the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation and Whitireia.
12.00 – 12.55, Wellington Central Library

Grim/m Tales
Hinemoana Baker, Paul Diamond, Fiona Kidman, Elizabeth Knox, Marco Sonzogni and Apirana Taylor give their unique take on Grimm-inspired themes.
6.15pm, Wellington Central Library: Join the writers for pre-show coffee from 5.30pm in Clarks.

Thurs 9th February 2012:

Reading Stage 2 Short readings from current work by upcoming and established writers and translators from the Institute of Modern Letters, Massey University, the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation and Whitireia.
12.00 – 12.55, Wellington Central Library

The Poetry Cabaret
Featuring musician Lorenzo Bühne and poets Bill Manhire and Chris Price with music, performances and readings of NZ poetry and German poetry in translation.
6pm Cafe Meow (9 Edward St), Wellington

Fri 10th February 2012:

Storytelling with Holly Gooch
Storyteller Holly Gooch performs on a fairy tale-inspired theme. Suitable for preschoolers (2 – 4 yrs) accompanied by an adult.
10.30am (until 11.30am), Wellington Central Library

Stories in Silhouette
Fairy tales brought to life by Lotte Reiniger, a pioneer of silhouette animation.
7.00pm, NZ Film Archive, Taranaki St, Wellington

Sat 11th February 2012:

Storytelling with Apirana Taylor.
Apirana Taylor tells stories, strums his guitar and adds atmosphere with his traditional Maori instruments.
Suitable for primary-age children (5 – 9 yrs).
2.00-3.00pm, Wellington Central Library

Free entry to kids’ events and lunchtime sessions. Evening events by Koha. For more information contact literaturhausnz@gmail.com

With the support of Creative New Zealand 


Also supported by the Goethe-Institut, NZ Book Council, New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, and Wellington City Council



Welcome to the Temporary Literaturhaus

In October 2012 New Zealand will be the Guest of Honour at the world’s biggest literary event, the Frankfurt Book Fair. To celebrate this, translator Sally-Ann Spencer has brought together a group of literary organisations to bring a taste of Europe to Wellington by creating New Zealand’s first, albeit temporary, Literaturhaus.

The Literaturhaus concept was first developed in Berlin in the late 1980s and has since been adopted in numerous cities in Germany and beyond. Literaturhäuser are at the heart of literary life in Germany, providing a venue for innovative literary events and education and a meeting place for all those interested in books. Their central mission is to communicate and promote interest in literature in all its forms among diverse readerships. The concept has since been introduced in Scandinavia with great success.

The Temporary Literaturhaus in Wellington will provide a mobile platform for literary events that bring together different communities of readers and writers. The launch events are organized in collaboration with the New Zealand Book Council, the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation and Wellington City Libraries, the Temporary Literaturhaus will reappear on a monthly basis at different venues in Wellington and connect with other literary institutions and initiatives in the city (supported by a grant from CNZ).

In the tradition of the German Literaturhäuser, the Temporary Literaturhaus will focus on innovative programming, moving away from conventional readings to focus on “live” literature and providing a welcoming and stimulating atmosphere for people to engage in the wider conversation about literature, translation and books.

Sponsored by: Creative New Zealand
Supported by:  Goethe Institut, New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, Meow Bar & Cafe, Wellington City Libraries, New Zealand Book Council

For more information, email literaturhausnz@gmail.com. The launch week runs from 7 - 11 February.