Göttingen
Three debuts, one linguistically furious evening: In Muri Darida’s “King Cobra” (dtv 2026), Lazi travels to Hungary in pursuit of a rifle and a family history made up of silence, liquor, and secrets. In Son Lewandowski’s “The Routines” (Klett-Cotta 2026), elite sport reveals itself as a system between discipline and hairspray, one that wears people down more than it celebrates them. And in Sophia Merwald’s “Bulky Waste” (park x ullstein 2026), a vacant lot becomes a utopia: a women’s shared flat, astro TV, and paprika soup — until the demolition notice comes knocking at the front door of Lusthansa. Together with literary mediator Amelie May, the three talk about their debuts, which pleasantly crash into the far too cozy bookshelf.
While Michael Kohlhaas exacts bloody revenge, “Michaela Kohlhaas” (Suhrkamp 2026) fights with words, sabotage, and exaggeration. Faced with the injustice done to her, she travels through the country cursing, only to keep running up against the same limits: resistance is not tolerated — least of all that of a woman. Heike Geißler’s rewriting of Kleist’s famous novella searches for atonement, restitution, and a wholly different ordering of the world. With support from the Deutsches Theater Göttingen, the author takes aim at the loving rebel at the Literaturhaus at the start of Kleist Year 2027. In cooperation with the Deutsches Theater Göttingen.
