Short Story Night

In the organizer's words:

Five short stories by five authors

Moderation: Mona Ameziane

Five short stories by five authors in a special setting - that's SHORT STORY NIGHT. Where the greats of the movie world usually flicker across the screen! The evenings are hosted by well-known presenters such as Mona Ameziane (WDR, Westart, 1live).

Short story is the English term for short story - a special literary form whose main characteristic is that it can be read in one sitting. Emerging with the magazine boom of the 19th century, the short story has since established itself as a narrative form and, due to its brevity, offered many famous authors the opportunity for literary experimentation.

+++

Writers of the evening

Annelies Verbeke, born in Dendermonde in 1967, studied German language and literature in Ghent and screenwriting in Brussels. She is the author of novels, short stories, screenplays and columns. Her debut novel "Slaap!" (Sleep!), published in 2003, has been translated into 18 languages and won numerous awards.

Dmitrij Kapitelman, born in Kyiv in 1986, came to Germany with his family at the age of eight as a "contingent refugee". He studied political science and sociology at the University of Leipzig and graduated from the German School of Journalism in Munich. Today he works as a freelance journalist. His first, successful book "Das Lächeln meines unsichtbaren Vaters" (My Invisible Father's Smile) was published in 2016, for which he won the Klaus-Michael Kühne Prize. This was followed in 2021 by "Eine Formalie in Kiew", for which he was awarded the Ravensburger Verlag Foundation's Family Novel Book Prize.

Kathrin Weßling is an author and social media expert. She is followed on social media by over 70,000 people who follow her posts and contributions on topics such as politics, mental illness and pop culture. Her book, "Super, und dir?", was hailed by the press and readers as "the novel of her generation". She also writes regularly for ZEIT ONLINE, SPIEGEL and many more.

Verena Keßler, born in Hamburg in 1988, lives in Leipzig, where she studied at the German Literature Institute. Her debut novel Die Gespenster von Demmin was nominated for numerous prizes and awarded the Kranichsteiner Jugendliteratur-Stipendium. Her most recent novel Eva was published by Hanser Berlin, for which she received the literary prize "Der zweite Roman".

Samuel Kramer (*1996), author and philosopher, deals academically, activistically and poetically with questions of solidarity in view of the destruction of the planetary foundations of life. The texts have been and are performed worldwide and published in anthologies and magazines, for example in BELLA triste and the Jahrbuch der Lyrik. 2020: Publication of the anthology Poetry for Future - 45 texts for the day after tomorrow and development of the poetry livestream format close, unique in the German-speaking world. 2021: Poetry Prize of the Open Mike and Wortmeldungen-Förderpreis for: Nothing about a forest fire is invisible. Samuel Kramer is co-author:in of the Hausacher Protokoll, a polyphonic poetological localization of German-language spoken word literature. The volume of poetry was finally published in 2025.

+++

The Short Story Night is organized by LAND IN SICHT e.V., a non-profit cultural association from Cologne that has been working to create publicity for literature since 2014. In addition to readings, the association's projects include Hörspielwiese Köln, the Auftakt Festival für szenische Texte and the Kölner Förderpreis für Literatur. Project management: Kevin Kader, André Patten

Sponsors of Short Story Night: Cultural Office of the City of Cologne, Kunststiftung NRW, State of NRW

+++