PARATAXE

What languages does Berlin write in? As part of the PARATAXE event series, Berlin-based authors who write in languages other than German are presented.

This time featuring the British author and translator Lucy Jones, this year's Wiepersdorf Fellow in the literature category, and the Georgian poet Bela Chekurishvili. Together with her friend and translation colleague Karen Witthuhn, Lucy Jones reads from the manuscript of her autobiographical, not-yet-published novel. The Georgian poet Bela Chekurishvili presents her latest volume of poetry in a bilingual reading.

An evening in German, English, and Georgian, moderated by Martin Jankowski.

Lucy Jones is a British translator and has lived in Berlin since 1998. She has translated, among others, novels by Brigitte Reimann, Anke Stelling, Silke Scheuermann, and Theresia Enzensberger. For ten years, she curated the reading series Fiction Canteen. Her own texts have appeared in SAND, STAT®REC, Pigeon Papers NYC, 3AM Magazine, and LitroMag. In spring 2026, Lucy Jones is a fellow at Schloss Wiepersdorf.

Karen Witthuhn has been translating novels, non-fiction books, plays and theater texts, as well as screenplays from English for over 25 years. After graduating with a degree in "Drama – Theatre, Film & TV" from the University of Bristol, she worked as a director, dramaturg, and production manager at German state theaters, in the independent scene, and for international theater festivals. Since 2010, she has run the literary translation office Transfiction with Lucy Jones.

Bela Chekurishvili was born in 1974 in Gurjaani (Georgia). She studied Georgian Language and Literature at Tbilisi University as well as German Studies, Comparative Literature, Art History, and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Bonn. She has translated numerous works from Georgian into German and is the author of poetry collections in Georgian and German, as well as a volume of short stories. Her poetry collection "Margo ist fort" will be published in March 2026 by publisher Das Wunderhorn.

Martin Jankowski, born in 1965 in Greifswald, is a Berlin writer who belonged to the oppositional Leipzig scene as a singer and songwriter in the 80s. After 1989, he published numerous songs, four volumes of poetry, short stories, volumes of essays, literary criticism, art-related non-fiction, and a novel. Since 2017, he has been the project leader of PARATAXE and editor of Stadtsprachen Magazin.

An event organized by PARATAXE in collaboration with the Cultural Foundation Schloss Wiepersdorf, sponsored by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.

Admission: 5 € / reduced 3 € (box office only)
Haus für Poesie in Kulturbrauerei, Knaackstraße 97, 10435 Berlin

Event link: PARATAXE