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German Department
Writer-in-Residence
The Max Kade Writer-in-Residence program, now in its 39th year, is a unique opportunity for Oberlin College students and faculty to get to spend a semester with a prominent and exciting contemporary author by reading and discussing his/her work. Over the years, these writers have contributed significantly to postwar German literature. Among them are poets and novelists from Austria, Germany - until 1989, both East and West Germany, and Switzerland. The most famous is probably Christa Wolf, followed by others with international reputations, such as Jurek Becker, Helga Novak, Ulrich Plenzdorf, Barbara Frischmuth, Tankred Dorst and many more. The short stories by Peter Bichsel are a staple in modern German literature as well as in our German language classes. More recent texts by Richard Wagner (who migrated to Germany from Rumania in 1988), Zafer Senocak, the German-Turkish author, Irina Liebmann, who left East Germany shortly before the opening of the wall, or Doron Rabinovici, one of the young Austrian-Jewish writers, are featured in and enrich our advanced literature courses. They also illustrate the shifting literary landscape and concerns in the German speaking countries.
2007
39th Max Kade German Writer-in-Residence
Uwe Kolbe
Poet, Essayist, Writer of Prose, and
Translator
Uwe Kolbe was born in 1957 in East Berlin. His father was a sailor on
the inland waterways. After graduating from high school and completing
military service, he studied at the Literatur-Institut Johannes R. Becher
in Leipzig from 1980 to 1981. His first volume of poetry, Hineingeboren,
appeared in East Berlin in 1980, but the increasingly critical nature
of his writing led to a ban on publication in the GDR in the early 1980s.
During these years, he edited the illegal journal Mikado together
with Lothar Trolle and Bernd Wagner. In 1985, he was permitted to travel
abroad and lived in Hamburg from 1987 until he could return to Berlin
after the fall of the wall. Today, he divides his time between Berlin
and Tübingen, where he is Director of the "Studio Literatur
und Theater" at the University of Tübingen.
Recent publications include the essay collection Renegatentermine (1998),
the poetry collections Vineta (1998) and Die Farben des
Wassers (2001), Der Tote von Belintasch, Kriminalgeschichte
(2002). Thrakische Spiele, Roman (2005), and another volume
of poetry ortvoll. Gedichte (2005).
Uwe Kolbe has received numerous prizes, including the Nicolas Born Prize
(1988) the Tübingen Friedrich Hölderlin Prize (1993), and the
Preis der Literaturhäuser (2006). He was also writer-in-residence
in Austin, Texas in 1989, from where he observed the fall of the wall.
Past writers-in-residence
2006
38th Max Kade Writer-in-Residence
Gila Lustiger
2005
37th Max Kade Writer-in-Residence
2005
36th Max Kade Writer-in-Residence
2003
35th Max Kade Writer-in-Residence
2002
34th Max Kade Writer-in-Residence
2001
33rd Max Kade Writer-in-Residence
2000
32nd Max Kade Writer-in-Residence
*****
1999 Gert Loschütz
1998 Werner Söllner
1997 Anna Mitgutsch
1996 Barbara Neuwirth
1995 Thomas Rosenlöcher
1994 Ralf Rothmann
1992 Richard Wagner
1991 Jürg Amann
1990 Hanna Johansen
1989 Josef Haslinger
1988 Helga Schütz
1987 Gernot Wolfgruber
1986 Karl-Heinz Jakobs
1985 Rainer Malkowski
1984 Gert Hofmann
1983 Peter Rosei
1982 Bernd Jentzsch
1981 Walter Helmut Fritz
1980 Christoph Geiser
1979 Johannes Schenk
1978 Jurek Becker
1977 Max von der Grün
1976 Barbara Frischmuth
1975 Ulrich Plenzdorf
1974 Christa Wolf
1973 Helga Novak
1972 Peter Bichsel
1971 Christoph Meckel
1970 Tankred Dorst
1969 Fritz Hochwälder
1968 Kuno Raeber
