Literary tandems take up the trail

From 17 to 23 April 2010 four authors from the Ruhr Metropolis will meet four writers from their European twin towns – and set out on a literary reconnaissance of local places.

The Ruhr author Werner Streletz from Bochum will be taking part.
Photo: Streletz

Each writer from the Ruhr will be host and guide to a European colleague for one week. As literary tandems the pairs of authors will scout out locations in the region and meet their inhabitants. The trail will lead each couple to places such as schools, newspaper offices, clubs, community centres and artists’ groups in Dortmund, the Borough of Unna, Bochum and the area around Herne.

Joint performance on "Literature Night"

The experience will culminate in the creation of literary texts, in which both authors will express their experences and impressions – one from the viewpoint of a Ruhr insider, one as an outsider to the region. On "Literature Night", 23 April 2010, they will read the first drafts of the eight authors’ texts. They will be published later in a joint, European book about the Ruhr.

Petra Reski from Kamen is a columnist and novel author (“Meine Mutter und ich” / "My Mother and I").
Photo: Paul Schirnhofer

Authors from France, England, Poland and Russia

The Ruhr authors are Heinrich Peuckmann and Horst Hensel from Dortmund, Petra Reski from Kamen, who now lives partly in Venice, and Werner Streletz from Bochum. Their literary partners will come from Dortmund’s and Bergkamen’s twin towns: from Amiens/France, Wielicka/Poland, Rostow on the Don/Russia and Leeds/England.

The project’s sponsors are Dortmund’s Fritz Hüser Institute for Literature and Working Culture, the Cultural Office of the City of Dortmund and the Bergkamen Town Council.