Dietmar Dath & Hendrik Otremba + Danke Fan-Fiction-Magazin Releaseparty

In the organizer's words:

The second evening of the four-part Literatur zur Zeit special "Pop, Literature and Society - Mind the Gaps". Supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and the Kunststiftung NRW:

"What does that actually mean ... criticism?"

Dietmar Dath and Hendrik Otremba present their latest books in conversation with Svenja Reiner. The discussion will also focus on "critical questions": Possibilities of social criticism in literary writing, (possibly) narrowing spaces in art and cultural criticism will be discussed.

In general: What is good criticism? What criteria does it use? What forms of feedback have authors already received - in work contexts, in private? Which reviews do you want to read and listen to yourself? And to celebrate the release of the third edition, we ask: Is fan fiction, as it appears in Danke magazine, the most passionate form of criticism?

Dietmar Dath, born in Rheinfelden in 1970, is an author, journalist and translator. He has been known to a large audience since his novel Die Abschaffung der Arten (The Abolition of Species), which was nominated for the German Book Prize in 2008.

Hendrik Otremba, born in Recklinghausen in 1984, is a writer, visual artist and singer with the group Messer. He also works as a lecturer in creative writing and occasionally as a curator. As a freelance journalist, he writes sporadically about music. His paintings are published and exhibited as album covers and in various magazines.