Soli-Abend für Quarteera e.V. – Lesung »Zungenbrecher« mit Karina Papp und Irina Nekrasov

In the organizer's words:

etece buch and SIMMINI cordially invite you to a solo reading in Leipzig! Karina Papp and Irina Nekrasov will read from and talk about Karina's debut novel "Zungenbrecher" and collect donations for Quarteera e.V.. Admission is on a donation basis, all proceeds go to the association.

The purpose of the donation

Quarteera e.V. is an association and community of Russian-speaking queer people and their friends in Germany. Since 2011, Quarteera has been committed to the visibility and support of Russian-speaking queer people, especially in the context of migration and multiple discrimination based on origin, sexual and gender identity. The organization offers counseling services (psychological, medical, legal), organizes events, engages in political education and supports queer refugees. Quarteera works together with other organizations and carries out projects and campaigns to promote queer rights.

The book

In her extraordinary debut "Zungenbrecher", Karina Papp tells the story of Kiera, a young woman who moves from St. Petersburg to Berlin to build a new life and study. She is distracted by tedious part-time jobs, an expectant mother and her attractive professor. To keep up with her studies, she forms a language tandem with Simon. A short time later, the two are a couple and spend their time translating poetry. While Kiera struggles to find words and clarity for her life, Simon plans their future together. But then Kiera meets the engaging activist Nadia, for whose attention she tears down her boundaries.

Kiera loses herself between the challenges of being a migrant in Germany, the expectations of her parents in Russia, fears for the future and the beguiling (re)discovery of her queerness. In her attempt to break free, she is accompanied by the first-person narrator, for whom Kiera's struggles are already in the past. Calm and sharp-eyed, she calls out to Kiera and the reader with encouragement and queerfeminist reading recommendations.
The book uniquely weaves together three languages - Russian, English and German - to create a poetic narrative about identity, resistance and the search for beauty in a fracturing world. It is a work about love, desire and belonging that touches gently and painfully at the same time.

The panelists

Karina Papp is an author and translator born in Latvia in 1988. She studied journalism and literature in Russia. She has lived in Berlin since 2013. In her search for interlingual and politically conscious literary forms, Karina combines writing with translation. She is the recipient of several DÜF Radial scholarships for translators. Her texts have been published in the literary journals Neznanie, m ZIN and Soft Eis Magazine. "Zungenbrecher" is her first novel.

Irina Nekrasov born 1993 in Chelyabinsk, is a Leipzig-based authorand cultural scientist. Irina has been a member of the collective PMS Postmigrant Disorder since 2018. In 2022 Irina won the WORTMELDUNGEN prize. Irina has published with "Herz & Habitus", "Solidarisch gegen Klassismus" and the literary magazine "die horen", among others.