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AI generated: The image shows a man smiling in a friendly manner and wearing glasses and a scarf. It is a black and white portrait with a blurred background.
Lesung / Gespräch

Joachim Sartorius and Tom Schulz in reading and conversation

Two poets, two generations - Literary alphabets

Tue / 28. Apr
19:30

Location
Dresden City Museum
Wilsdruffer Straße 2 01067 Dresden
Date
Tue / 28. Apr
19:30
Admission
8 €, reduced 5 €

In 2026, the "Literary Alphabets" will have a motto for the first time: "Between Generations". The title is the programme. Because we want to ask: What is the relationship between the generations like? Do they co-operate, do they avoid each other? What problems are there? Is there a fruitful exchange, including artistic and literary exchange? If not, what could it look like? What needs to change? What can we do? Do younger older and older younger authors read? How much interest is there in each other's work?

We will start with two authors who are among the most renowned in their generation: Joachim Sartorius and Tom Schulz. Both have also crossed borders geographically. Both live alternately in Italy and Germany. Both translate. Writing. Travelling.

  • Admission €8, reduced €5
AI generated: The image shows an older man in formal clothes sitting in front of a green wall, illuminated by a lamp. He appears to be outside, surrounded by plants.Joachim Sartorius | Foto: © Peter R. Fischer

Joachim Sartorius, born in 1946, expresses his life as a wanderer in light verse. He draws on his experiences of a childhood and youth in Tunisia and in the heart of Africa. He has worked as a diplomat in New York, Ankara and Nicosia; from 1994 as head of the DAAD in Berlin; in 1996 as Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut in Munich; and from 2001 to 2011 as Director of the Berliner Festspiele. But one thing above all and from the very beginning: Poet. He is also a tireless editor and translator. Many an edition of his works would not exist without him (W.C. Willians, Malcolm Lowry).

His "Atlas of New Poetry", published by Rowohlt in 1995, has remapped the lyrical world for many. In addition to travel books about the Princes' Islands or Syracuse, he has published more than a dozen volumes of poetry.

A new one has just been published: "Die besseren Nächte" (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2026).

AI generated: The image shows a man smiling in a friendly manner and wearing glasses and a scarf. It is a black and white portrait with a blurred background.Tom Schulz | Foto: © Dirk Skiba

Tom Schulz, born in 1970, knows his way around "lyrical celestial science" and is often described as the romantic among German poets. His poems have such wonderful titles as "Cape of the Good Wooden Bench" or such mysterious ones as "When the Blüthenstaub Taxi Stops".

Schulz grew up in East Berlin and initially worked in various jobs in the construction industry. He later worked as an editor and lecturer for creative writing, led poetry workshops and wrote lucid portraits of writers for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, among others. He has also published more than a dozen volumes of poetry.

"Salz und Erinnern" has just been published (Verlag Poetenladen, Leipzig 2026).

On this evening, Volker Sielaff talks to the two poets about the similarities and differences between their biographies. What separates and what connects the poets and Italy experts? An evening along two exciting life paths, an evening "between generations".

Literaturforum Dresden e. V. in co-operation with the Museums of the City of Dresden

Supported by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony. This programme is co-financed by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament. Supported by the City of Dresden.