Benjamin Kunkel and Keith Gessen: n+1

Ten protagonists of the New York literary scene read at the House of World Cultures: famous voices and newcomers, novelists and poets. Polyphony in all respects – these authors offer insights into the diversity of cultural, ethnic and social affiliations that make up life in New York. They tell of worlds between cultures, of experience at the margins of society, and they search for forms through which to portray the complexity of our globalised present.

With their cultural journal n+1, the two authors consciously distance themselves from the commercial literature business. n+1 views itself as a research institute in the form of a semi-annual publication. Whether featuring politics, literature or theory, the journal stands for a new earnestness and delivers biting criticism and brilliantly written essays. A utopian hope runs through it, without which, according to Kunkel, thinking on the political left would be torture. At HKW Benjamin Kunkel – known in Germany for his novel "Indecision" – and Keith Gessen will read from pieces they have contributed to the journal and talk about the ambitions and hazards of their project.

In cooperation with the international literature festival berlin.