Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner »Nerd Girl Magic«/ Jasper Nicolaisen »Diebesgut«

In the organizer's words:

The authors present their latest books and talk about nerd and geek culture. An event from the Literatur zur Zeit series

Moderator: Katharina Kwittiseeds Schmidt

An event from the Literatur zur Zeit series. Supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne.

"Nerd Girl Magic"

Based on personal experiences since childhood, Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner addresses nerd and geek culture from a non-white, non-male perspective in "Nerd Girl Magic". The nerdy coming-of-age is discussed as a potential for social resistance and change using various examples. These range from the magical girl genre and its (seemingly) inherent queerness to gaming culture, video games and the fight against the exclusion of people who are not white, male and cis, to pen & paper and alternative realities, fantasy and sci-fi, to pro-wrestling and the "big wave" from Korea in recent years with K-pop and K-drama. It is about access to nerd culture for those who continue to devalue nerdiness, but also about the fact that fandom has always been permeated by anti-authoritarian, resistant, female and non-white currents, that nerd culture can be a utopian retreat for FLINTA, queer people, BIPoC, neurodivergent people and workers. All of this is embedded in a detailed, intersectional, insightful and amusing analysis of films, series, games, comics, anime, manga and genre literature such as Sailor Moon, Buffy, Star Trek and Dark Academia. It's time to rethink the image of the nerd!

Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner writes, translates and is interested in (queer) fandoms online, horror from a post-migrant perspective, language in video games and linguistic experimentation. Since 2022 part of various theater, performance and film projects. Co-edits the literary magazine process*in. 2022 saw the publication of her debut novel "Messer, Zungen", 2024 the bilingual book "Ich kann dich noch sehen (an diesen Tagen)", which was awarded the Hamburg Literature Prize's Book of the Year Award. Translations of "Against White Feminism" by Rafia Zakaria (2022), "Exponiert" by Olivia Sudjic (2023) and "Good Talk" by Mira Jacob (2022), among others.

"The stolen goods"

After graduating from high school, Stefan moves to Berlin to start training as a banker, but his plans fall through shortly after his arrival. The landlord doesn't even show up to hand over the keys and the crooked house turns out to be a derelict building that is deliberately left to decay in order to scare off the last tenants. The only ray of hope is the house community, which sticks together against all odds: Mr. Wischnewski, a gay man with a passion for culture, becomes a father figure for Stefan. Lydia gets her daughter Emmy through with feminist esoteric events, while the lesbian couple Martina and Hans keep everything in good working order - no easy task, as the abandoned apartments are full of creepy remains. In the basement, Martina and Hans dig a tunnel to Stefan's training company, of all places. The burglary is intended to provide the community with enough money to buy the house and prevent the luxury renovation. With the help of a genuine treasure map from a safe deposit box, the rescue plan turns into a weird scavenger hunt across Berlin.

Jasper Nicolaisen (*1979) is an author and systemic therapist. He likes cultural trash and dirt, boxing and other people's complicated problems. His first novel "Ein schönes Kleid" was published by Querverlag in 2016. The novel "Erwachsen" followed in 2019. He lives in Berlin with his husband and children.