To Chemnitz and Back Again

In a joint initiative between the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025, the "international literature festival berlin", and the Goethe-Institut New York, American author Kathryn Scanlan was invited to participate in the two-month "EXI(S)T - Literature Residency" in Chemnitz this fall. Upon her return to the United States in early November, Kathryn will sit down with novelist and critic Kate Zambreno to reflect on her experiences in Germany and consider the question of how Chemnitz can be reinterpreted through a transatlantic lens.

Kathryn Scanlan is considered one of the most independent voices in contemporary US literature. In her work Kick the Latch (New Directions, 2022), she tells of the life of a horse trainer from the Midwest and the harsh world of racetracks and horse betting. Her texts are characterized by a documentary narrative style and a great closeness to the lives of the American working class. They are often set in the cities of the Midwest, industrial places that have been facing the challenges of deindustrialization for several decades. Chemnitz, which has always been an industrial and working-class city, also shares this history and present of transformation.

The invitation to Chemnitz is a tribute to Stefan Heym, one of the most important German-language writers and son of the city of Chemnitz. Following oppression and persecution under National Socialism, he fled to the USA via Czechoslovakia to study there. He later returned from the United States to war-torn Germany and became one of the critical public intellectuals of the late GDR. The stay is not only a reflection on transatlantic relations, but also builds a bridge between past and present, as both authors deal with the reality of workers' lives against the backdrop of social upheaval.

Kathryn Scanlan is the author of Aug 9—Fog, The Dominant Animal, and Kick the Latch. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, the Iowa Review Award, the Gordon Burn Prize, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction and a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as fellowships from MacDowell and the Jan Michalski Foundation. Her work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in exhibition catalogs for artists including Ed Atkins, Robert Therrien, Sam Contis and Mary Ellen Carrol, and she is a regular contributor to the literary journal NOON, edited by Diane Williams.

The event was organized in cooperation with the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 and the International Literature Festival Berlin.