#richard weihe

[outsideofenough]

“Does that mean I don’t have to begin with the role models and attain their level of expertise before striking my own path?” the pupil asked.

“When you talk like that you are forgetting that besides the old role models you also have your own: yourself. You cannot hang on to the beards of the ancients. You must try to be your own life and not the death of another. For this reason the best painting method is the method of no method. Even if the brush, the ink, the drawing are all wrong, what constitutes your “I” still survives. You must not let the brush control you; you must control the brush yourself.”

Sea of Ink, Richard Weihe (Chapter 33)

[swisscgny]

Festival Neue Literatur Brings two Swiss Authors to New York City

The Festival Neue Literatur brings two of the best contemporary German writers from Switzerland to New York City this Friday, February 28 to Sunday, March 2. Don't miss these events with Swiss authors Richard Weihe and Melinda Nadj Abonji!

Encounters Across the Ocean

February 28, 2014 1:00pm–5:00pm @ Deutsches Haus Columbia 420 West 116th Street All authors In English

All six novelists from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will present their latest work in a discussion with Columbia University graduate students from the Department of Germanic Languages and the Creative Writing Program.

Students from the Department of Germanic Languages:

Tomasz Kurianowicz – Maja Haderlap Anna-Maria Valerius – Olga Grjasnowa Erin Moir – Richard Weihe

Students from the Creative Writing Program:

Katrine Jensen – Melinda Nadj Abonji Megan Matich – Milena Michiko Flasar Rachel Sur – Abbas Khider

Memory and Language: Angels or Demons

March 1, 2014 6:00pm–8:00pm @ powerHouse Arena 37 Main Street, Brooklyn With authors Maja Haderlap, Melinda Nadj Abonji, Milena Michiko Flašar, and Monique Truong In English

To what extent does language determine identity and one’s understanding of the world? Is the fickleness of memory a burden or a liberation?

Moderated by Tess Lewis

R.S.V.P.

A Literary Brunch

March 2, 2014 12pm @ Deutsches Haus NYU 42 Washington Mews All authors In English

The six German-language authors of Festival Neue Literatur give a sampling from their work, providing a taste of new writing from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Traditional German fare will be served.

R.S.V.P.

Search for Roots: Exile’s Revolving Doors

March 2, 2014 6:00pm–8:00pm McNally Jackson Bookstore 52 Prince Street, Manhattan With authors Olga Grjasnowa, Abbas Khider, Richard Weihe, and Keith Gessen In English

Are we all ‘rootless cosmopolitans’ now? An ever-increasing population of exiles and refugees travel the world bearing private burdens of trauma and conflict, at home everywhere and nowhere. What is rootedness today?

Moderated by Tess Lewis

R.S.V.P.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:  

ABOUT THE SWISS AUTHORS:

Richard Weihe  is a freelance writer and professor of theater studies at the Scuola Teatro Dmitri in Ticino, as well as a guest lecturer at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. Born and raised in Switzerland, he studied at the Universities of Zurich, Bonn, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate in Comparative Literature. Featured novel: Ocean of Milk

Melinda Nadj Abonji born in Becsej, Vojvodina, earned a master’s degree in German and history in Zurich, where she now lives as an author and musician (violin and vocals). Nadj Abonji’s first novel, Im Schaufenster im Frühling (In the Showcase in Spring), was published in 2004 and has been the recipient of numerous awards. Tauben fliegen auf (“Fly Away, Pigeon”), her second novel, has won 2010 the German as well as the Swiss Book Prize.

Featured novel: Fly Away, Pigeon

For more info on the festival, taking place Feb 28 – Mar 2, please visit : http://festivalneueliteratur.org/