Live literature experiences
Reading festivals, performances, poetry slams – book fans in Germany love live literature experiences. One of the greatest popular performers is cult author T.C. Boyle.
The public in Germany adores T.C. Boyle. Naturally, because of his novels. His 25th book, The Harder They Come, has just been published. But euphoria breaks loose amongst his fans, when the US writer comes to Germany to read from his works. He does this regularly. His most recent visit marked the run-up to this year’s “Leipzig reads” reading festival at the Leipzig Book Fair. Mind you, the term ‘reading’ does not really describe the performance of the cult author from California. Boyle catapults himself into the minds and hearts of his audiences with his wise and witty performances. The man with the red sneakers has a rock star gene, as he remarks with a wink: “The essence of literature is language – and that is what I want to be heard on stage, I want to give my stories a rhythm.”
Europe’s largest reading festival in Leipzig
This method of conveying literature is very trendy in Germany. At the beginning of the 1990s the Leipzig Book Fair initiated the reading festival which resulted in an impressive increase in the number of visitors. “Leipzig reads” offers more than 3,200 events with more than 3,000 participants at 400 venues. This now makes it Europe’s largest reading festival. It is just one example of the bright and multifarious world of staging books: intellectual literary salons, bizarre presentations of crime novels in pathology institutes, whacky poetry slams at universities or grand appearances at one of the literature houses which can now be found in many German cities. There are currently around 50 literature festivals in Germany, one of which is Lit.COLOGNE in Cologne. The US cult author appeared here as well, much to the delight of the public who turned out in such numbers that he took part in an additional book-signing session. After all, when it comes to T.C. Boyle, the affection is mutual.
Leipzig Book Fair from 12 to 15 March 2015 with a focus on German-Israeli dialogue www.de50il.org
International Reading Festival lit.COLOGNE from 11 to 21 March 2015 in Cologne
