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internationales literaturfestival berlin

Founded in 2001, the internationales literaturfestival berlin (ilb) is one of the most extensive literary events in Berlin and therefore a central element of Berlin's literary scene, bringing together authors from all over the world for readings, discussions and workshops as part of a wide-ranging festival programme. Directed by Ulrich Schreiber until 2022, the ilb welcomed Lavinia Frey as the new festival director in 2023, who has been developing the festival's profile in close cooperation with the festival team, deepening their engagement with the broad spectrum of contemporary literature, including prose, poetry, non-fiction, graphic novels and children's and young adult literature.

The cooperation with the ilb has been a central element of the Cluster's collaborative network from the very beginning. After several joint formats, the Cluster and the festival have institutionalised the collaborative annual programme series Echo Echo, focusing on transtemporal und transcultural relations in literary texts and its media – understanding literature and its histories as an echo chamber of text traditions, political and social contexts and as a complex field of relations in which literary forms, agents and traditions form varying constellations.

     

Featured Activities

ilb 2024 | Echo. Echo: Temporal Collectives

The 4th edition of the Echo Echo series explored the interrelation between temporality and collectivity in writing, reading, and the circulation of literature across different contexts. The events delved into queer and trans temporalities, literary environmental activism, and forms of collectivity that challenge linear concepts of time and traditional notions of community. As part of the children and youth program, a workshop with Berlin school students investigated the relationship between sound and text through their own readings, small compositions, and audio recordings.

ilb 2023 | Echo. Echo: Magical Echoes

In 2023, the joint series Echo Echo focuses on varieties of the magical in contemporary literature. The special programme examined how the category of the magical is defined, how it can perpetuate forms of othering, and how diverse traditions emerge from this label. With a focus on the colonial patterns that have shaped perceptions of magical literature, the program highlighted authors who critically engage with the aesthetics, politics, and histories of the magical in their work. One of the literary encounters is published in the Cluster's publication series con·stel·la·tions.

ilb 2022 | Echo. Echo: Postsoviet Cosmopolis

Echo Echo: Post-Soviet Cosmopolis explored the aesthetics and discourses of post-Soviet literatures. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a dynamic body of literature has emerged that is deeply rooted in historical experience while expanding across transnational contexts. The special program examined the legacy of Soviet cultural and linguistic policies, the negotiation of capitalist and socialist values, and the role of multilingual and translingual poetics in shaping new literary spaces. It asked how authors respond to past forms of domination, imagine new utopias, and engage with current crises, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

ilb 2021 | Echo. Echo: Indigenous Voices

The first edition of the series Echo. Echo focused on »Indigenous Voices«: What knowledge counts? Who owns the land? And who is heard? In readings and talks, the invited authors provided insights into their artistic production and discussed the complexity of cultural identity and literary self-assertion. In their works, they resist marginalization and linguistic extinction. They tell of alternative knowledge formation, structural violence, land theft, and the complex consequences of European colonization. The program made visible that »Indigenous literature« operates in both a local and global register and negotiates the dynamics of community building in many ways.

ilb 2020

In 2020, the collaboration between the Cluster and the international literature festival berlin (ilb) was further expanded with a series of readings and discussions centered on key research themes of the Cluster: digital authorship, the category of "global literature," and literature shaped by migration, exile, and histories of cultural entanglement. In response to the constraints of the pandemic in autumn 2020, the Global Encounters format was launched, bringing together authors from around the world for digital conversations and shared reflections on literature under these exceptional circumstances.

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