Queer literature - a kaleidoscope of voices. Reading and discussion with Kaśka Bryla & Raphaela Edelbauer

The question is wrong. Because too many approaches to queer literature are possible. For some, the label simply describes texts in which queer personnel appear, for others, queer literature is the work of queer authors. For some, literature is queer when it discusses issues of body politics, for others it is a matter of non-binary spellings.

And since queer authors could not be visible for a long time due to the structures of the literary business without also becoming politically active at the same time, queer literature is often also characterized by subversion and activism. Queer literature can be many things. It presents itself to us as a kaleidoscope of voices, experiences, styles of writing and themes.

On the evening, two authors, each with their own approach to queer literature, will discuss and read from their current novels. The event will be moderated by bookseller Alex Bachler.

Kaśka Bryla was born in Vienna and grew up between Vienna and Warsaw. She studied economics in Vienna, dramatic writing at the UDK in Berlin and literary writing at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig, where she co-founded the authors' network and the literary magazine "PS - Politisch Writing" in 2015. She gives courses on creative writing in prisons, for refugee women and people with migration experience. In 2020 her debut novel »Roter Affe« and in 2022 »Die Eistaucher« were published by Residenz Verlag. Short prose by Kaśka Bryla has been published in anthologies and literary magazines. Among her grants and awards are the Austrian Exile Prize, the Austrian Start Grant and the Vienna Literature Grant 2022.

Raphaela Edelbauer, born in Vienna, studied language arts at the University of Applied Arts. For her work »Discoverers. Eine Poetik« she was awarded the main prize of the Rauriser Literaturtage. She was also awarded the audience prize at the Bachmann Competition, the Theodor Körner Prize and the advancement prize of the Doppelfeld Foundation. Her debut novel, »The Liquid Land«, was shortlisted for the German Book Prize, and she received the Austrian Book Prize for her second novel, »DAVE«. Like the others, her current novel The Incommensurables was published by Klett-Cotta in 2023. Raphaela Edelbauer lives in Vienna.

Alex Bachler (she/her) grew up as a working-class child in the heart of the Ruhr area and has lived in Berlin since 2012. She is studying cultural studies and gender studies part-time at the Humboldt University in Berlin and works as a bookseller in the bookstore »ocelot, not just another bookstore« in Berlin-Mitte. Online she writes under the name phytoalexine for various platforms about literature and pop culture.

With the kind support of the Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin, the bookstore Eisenherz Berlin and the bookstore Löwenherz Vienna.