The House of Literature Schleswig-Holstein Association was founded in 1989 and serves both as a house of literature in the regional capital of Kiel, and as a literary bureau for the entire federal state. Continuous events in the house present new German-speaking literature as well as foreign-language authors especially from countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. A program for children and adolescents completes the range. Concerning Schleswig-Holstein, the House of Literature organizes the Literary Summer with an annually changing focus on one country, the "European Festival of the Debut Novel", and the "Liliencron-lectureship" which is reserved strictly for poetry. Furthermore, it offers counselling and training for literary workers, as well as a public platform for new manuscripts. The House of Literature Schleswig-Holstein is basically supported by means of the federal state. In addition to this, there are constant as well as varying cooperations and sponsorships in order to secure the work on current projects.
Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state in Germany, sees itself as a "land between the seas". The state links the North Sea and the Baltic by canal, and is also a borderland between Scandinavia and central Europe, building bridges between the Schleswig region and its partner Nordslesvig on the Danish side and to Norway and Sweden with ferries leaving Kiel to Oslo and Göteborg.
As varied as the salt levels and tides of the two seas is the landscape, as Günter Kunert condenses it into his poem Bei Itzehoe. Here
lie comforting spaces
between sea and sea
swamp and marsh
wetness and nothing
Every step
leads into silence
interspersed with little towns
bowing to the quiet
Here
the concealing mists are at home
and the Vikings long since
archived.
And, one would like to add, in May and June these comforting spaces glow rapeseed yellow under a clear blue sky.
As varied as the landscape are also the writers who, like Günther Kunert, Sarah Kirsch, Günter Grass, Jochen Missfeldt and the younger Feridun Zaimoglu and Karen Duve, have made their homes in Schleswig-Holstein, or have a second home here like Peter Rühmkorf and Siegfried Lenz. What they look for is what also characterises the places where the state enables writers and translators to spend time: the chance to work on their writing in peace and seclusion. On the Baltic coast Schleswig-Holstein itself offers such retreats in the old Cismar Monastery and in the small town Eckernförde near Kiel, and on the North Sea kunst:raum sylt quelle runs its own residential house in Rantum on the island of Sylt—presented separately on this website.
The Schleswig-Holstein Literature House in the state’s capital Kiel was founded in 1989 by literary associations, cultural and educational institutions, as a network for contemporary literary life in the region. It works across the region, hosting a series of literary events in around 20 locations with different cooperation partners every summer, dedicated to the literature of a particular country. It supports its partners’ many different events over the year, offering advice, joint promotion and financial assistance. For the writers and translators of Schleswig-Holstein, the Literature House provides information and advice, a monthly event for presenting new manuscripts and the "Nordtext" literary workshops in conjunction with the Nordkolleg Rendsburg.
Authors and readers come together in the Literature House in Kiel. Special events present new German-language literature and writing from the Baltic states. The house also hosts the Liliencron Visiting Fellowship for Poetry. Some 70 readings, discussion events and text workshops take place every year in the old villa situated in the city’s former botanical gardens, along with small exhibitions with a literary theme.
Since 2003, the Literature House has run an annual project with the support of embassies and partner institutions from various countries, promoting the exchange of new writing on a European level. The "European festival of the debut novel" is held in late spring, when the rapeseed fields paint Schleswig-Holstein yellow, creating previews of Europe’s future literature and chances for authors and literary professionals to meet up. Ten writers from ten countries, whose first novels have been published but not yet translated, come together for three days along with their editors and specialists from the European literature industry, to talk about writing and publishing, to get to know the sheer breadth of contemporary literature in Europe and to open up the route to translation. 50 authors, 40 publishers and a total of 16 countries have so far taken the opportunity to present debut novels to general and specialist audiences, publishing extracts in a trilingual brochure. The participants have originated from Norway to Hungary, from Estonia to Spain, qualifying the "European festival of the debut novel" as an Ars Baltica project.
The Literature House offers HALMA grant holders a place to stay in the residential houses mentioned above and arranges readings in various locations and contacts to local writers for visiting authors. A HALMA grant is also planned for one to two participants of the annual "European festival of the debut novel".
Wolfgang Sandfuchs