Berlin has been associated with expat writers since the days of Christopher Isherwood. And the Anglophone writing scene is currently healthier than ever, as three new initiatives from Berlin-based expats show.

One of the ambitious new ventures is Bordercrossing Berlin, a new biannual literary magazine from Berlin, publishing original English language poetry and prose along with new art. It will also include interviews with established writers working in Berlin and Germany as well as feature articles on writing, writers and translation. The debut issue is due to be launched in December.

Another layer

Bordercrossing aims to bring together the best expat writing in Berlin

The idea was a response to a lack of a suitable forum for Anglophone literary creation in Berlin. "I had heard so many people say 'this has to happen, but I can’t do it, I haven't got the time etc', and had said it myself so many times, I was just fed up of hearing it," Mizani recalls. "I thought it just needs someone to start it. Then I met Johannes Frank, whose Verlagshaus J. Frank is the publisher, and presented him with the idea. He was mad enough to accept."

Mizani is keen to expand the magazine in future. "We are hoping to extend our connections with the other European English language literary magazines, and hopefully be able to offer some new opportunities to writers working with the English language in Berlin," says Mizani. "We really want to connect the grass roots of writing here with the 'upper echelons' of literary and writer exchange in the city.

"The best thing is finding out that there are so many people willing to give their support to ideas like this, actual, practical help, and lots of goodwill. It has been a very strange process watching what started as an idea in my head, grow and become an actual thing. I think I will just be very shocked when I am actually holding the first issue in my hands!"

Inspiring

Mizani was also the inspiration behind another new venture, the Poetry Hearings festival. Organiser and UK expat Alistair Noon recalls he was chatting to Fiona Mizani at the bar she used to run, Cafe Rosa, which was formerly a centre for the expat literary scene. "I mentioned some people I knew who hadn't yet read at the Cafe Rosa readings, and it was actually so many that Fiona suggested I put it all together as a festival," Noon recalls.

Berlin expat Alistair Noon has been a mainstay of the expat literary scene for several years. The poet, who is originally from Aylesbury in the UK, has recently been putting together the second edition of Poetry Hearings, which brings together Anglophone poets based in or visiting Berlin, plus poets based in other continental European cities like Prague, Amsterdam and Paris. This year's festival, which takes place from 17-19 November, also includes poets coming over specially from the UK.

"The idea is basically to provide a bit of infrastructure for the many Anglophone poets now living and writing in Berlin and continental Europe," Noon says. "It's maybe a cliché to say it, but we live in globalized times. People don't necessarily read, write and publish in the places you might expect by looking at their passport."

Expat poet Alistair Noon

The festival is a broach church, Noon says. "It's a pretty open-minded festival. There are poets taking part who could be categorised as mainstream, modernist, experimental or performance. Good stuff is around in all these genres and the festival wants to give it a hearing."

What are his plans for the festival? "Though I want to keep the focus on poets writing in English, I'd also like to include younger German and other poets together with English translation to make a kind of bridge between the respective scenes."

Building bridges

no man's land: Ernesto Castillo, Clemens Kuhnert, Adrijana Bohocki, Isabel Cole

"The 'lauter niemand' 10th anniversary issue celebrates the writers who have been associated with the magazine and its weekly Literaturlabor over the past ten years," Cole says. "'No man's land' has extended this network to create collaborations between these writers and talented translators, several of whom are poets active in the Berlin literary scene.

"The primary aim is to present contemporary German literature to an English-speaking audience," Cole says. "As yet, there is no other widely available publication devoted to German literature in English. Over the long term, we will be developing the 'no man's land' site as a forum for dialogue between German- and English-speaking readers, writers and translators."

Sisyphean attempts

Like Mizani and Noon, Cole was inspired to start her own project out of frustration with the lack of opportunities for English writers in Berlin. "As a translator, I was getting tired of Sisyphean attempts to find markets for translations of German literature, and decided to take action and create one myself," she says.

"I was also interested in different ways of exploring and presenting the translation process itself. I was already involved with 'lauter niemand', their tenth birthday was approaching, and everything fell into place."

Perhaps because of the connection to German-language literature, it has been easier to find funding for the project; 'no man's land' is being supported by the HauptstadtKulturfonds, Berlin. "We hope to maintain 'no man's land' as a regular online journal and forum for German literature in English, developing our contacts especially with the English literary community in Berlin and organizing workshops, readings and other events," says Cole. "If we can continue to find funding, that is!

"We would like to see 'no man's land' become a kind of interface in particular between the English and German literary scenes in Berlin," she says. "From this perspective we are very excited about what Fiona and Alistair are doing and look forward to all kinds of synergies in future."

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Bordercrossing Berlin will be launched on 2 December at Z-Bar in Berlin. See http://www.bordercrossing-berlin.com/ for more details.

Poetry Hearings will take place from 17 - 19 November 2006 at Salon Rosa, Sophienstr. 18, Entrance H, 10178 Berlin (Mitte). More information at: http://www.myspace.com/poetryhearings

The online edition of no man's land can be viewed at www.no-mans-land.org, and the print edition will be available in selected English bookshops throughout Europe and Goethe Institutes around the world. The magazine will be launched with a bilingual reading (with Andrej Glusgold, Orsolya Kalasz, Donna Stonecipher, Ron Winkler, Ulf Stolterfoht among others) on 7 December in Ballhaus Ost, Pappelallee 15 in Berlin, starting at 8 p.m. See also www.lauter-niemand.de.

8 November 2006

Copyright Expatica 2006

Subject: expat literature in Berlin, writers in Berlin, Bordercrossing Berlin, Poetry Hearings, no man's land