Fiktion: New Writing Group Workshop

Writers Ann Cotten and Ingo Niermann lead a writing workshop. This is presented as part of the work of Fiktion, a network of German- and English-speaking writers, investigating the opportunities afforded by the digital to spark a new euphoria in fiction writing, publishing and reading.

The Fiktion project operates on several levels: the digital publication of German- and English-language literature that does not fit the current criteria of the market; all titles are distributed free of charge; the creation of an international network of writers that seeks out manuscripts and supports them after publication; the advancement of the debate about copyright law; the development of a new reading format that encourages concentration, which is currently being researched at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Ann Cotten (born in 1982 in Iowa, grew up in Vienna) has been living in Berlin since 2006. Among other travels, she has worked and studied in Japan and Guinea-Bissau. Her first poetry collection, Fremdwörterbuchsonette (2007), startled the German poetry scene with sonnets. Since then, she has published several books of prose and poetry in mixed arrangements in German and English; forthcoming are Verbannt! (Suhrkamp 2016), an utopian epic poem in pseudo-spenserian stanzas, and Lather in Heaven (Broken Dimanche Press 2016), a collection of prose, poetry and photography in English, dealing with structural similarity, displacement, perception and song.

Ingo Niermann (born 1969 in Bielefeld, Germany, lives as a writer in Berlin and Basel). His debut novel Der Effekt was published in 2001. Recent Books include Solution 264–274: Drill Nation (2015),  Concentration (ed., 2015), The Future of Art. A Manual (with E. Niedling, 2011), Deutscher Sohn (with A.Wallasch, 2010), Solution 186–195: Dubai Democracy (2010), Solution 1–10: Umbauland (2009), Solution 9: The Great Pyramid (with J. Thiel, 2008), and The Curious World of Drugs and Their Friends (with A. Sack, 2008). Niermann is the editor of the book series Solution and co-founder of the digital publishing project Fiktion.

This workshop is followed by readings and panel discussion Fiktion: New Writing Group.

Fiktion is a project of Fiktion e.V., developed in cooperation with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt with support from the Kulturstiftung des Bundes.

Supported by the Goethe-Institut London.