“Non-Binary Writing” – Novels on the Intersection of Body, Identity, and Language.

How do perspective and language regarding the body and desire change when identity is conceived not as fixed but as in motion?

(in German)

In “Aus dem schlafenden Vulkan ausbrechen” (2022), Jchj Vé Dussel tells the story of Kopja’s upbringing in provincial Germany, marked by bullying, humiliation, and body shaming. Violence, desire, and the growing urge for self-determination shape a language that attempts to assert itself against binary gender orders.

In “Klosterberg” (2025), Boris Celeste tells the story of the traumatized protagonist’s new beginning in a monastery. Between fear and desire, a narrative unfolds that blurs the boundaries of inside and outside, of space, time, and the characters.

Boris Celeste (formerly Boris Hoge-Benteler), born in Marburg in 1979, studied German, Italian, and history in Berlin and Vienna and earned a doctorate in Münster. Since then, Boris Celeste has lived and written between Weimar and Berlin, exploring spaces of language and perception that do not fix identities but rather open them up. Following the novels *Sonnenstadt* (2022) and *Liebe Dunkelheit* (2023), *Klosterberg* was published in 2025. Boris Celeste is a fellow of the Thuringia Cultural Foundation and is currently working on a fourth novel.

Jchj Vé Dussel works as an author, performer, clown, songwriter, and director in the independent theater scene and at municipal theaters, most recently at the Schauspielhaus Zürich and the Staatstheater Nürnberg. In 2022, his debut novel “aus dem schlafenden Vulkan ausbrechen” was published by Luftschacht Verlag, and Jchj’s text “Drei Frauen im Meeresspiegel der Post-Apokalypse” was shortlisted for the Theatertreffen at the Berliner Festspiele. In 2024, the Berlin Indie Film Festival honored Jchj’s musical “Faggot for Future” as Best Feature Film. Jchj lives in Berlin.