In 2016 the main focus of the Residency for Writers in Amsterdam will be on German writers-in-residence, leading up to the Frankfurter Buchmesse in October 2016. The Netherlands and Flanders will be guest of honour this year. Our first guest is German writer and historian Per Leo (1972).
His debut novel Flut und Boden (‘Flood and soil’) was nominated for the shortlist of the Leipzicher Buchmesse Preis and won the Klaus-Michael-Kühne-Preis of the Harbourfront Literaturfestival in 2014. The Dutch translation of this book will be published by De Arbeiderspers in February 2016, during his residency.
Per Leo will be hosted on January 20th by the University of Amsterdam for an open talk about history and literature. He will also give a talk at the Goethe Institut in Amsterdam on February 11th.
What remains:
- Schrijver Per Leo was even te gast in een droom van onverwoestbare schoonheid, Article by Per Leo on his residency in Dutch newspaper Het Parool ,10 maart 2016.
- Two 1minute-video’s by Why I Love This Book with Per Leo, both English spoken. One on his novel Flut und Boden and another discussing his favourite Dutch novel: De donkere kamer van Damocles by W.F. Hermans. This Dutch classic has been translated into twenty something languages, including English: in 1962 by Roy Edwards and more recently by Ina Rilke as The darkroom of Damocles for Harvill, London and Woodstock, New York.
More information about
- the Writer in residence program
- Per Leo at Klett Cotta Verlag.