The future. That sounds a bit strange and like science fiction right now. The coronavirus pandemic and the climate crisis are currently calling everything into question. "The Flood Before Us" was therefore the title of the writing workshop held during the 2021 autumn break, a long-standing collaboration between Kreatives Schreiben eV and wannseeFORUM, a partnership that combines tradition and future. For five days, young people explored the future through writing – in working groups during the day, and in critique sessions and hours-long discussions in the evening.
The focus was on conceptual approaches beyond the science fiction genre, on searching for, finding, and formulating new goals and future tasks, on different text types and approaches to planning and writing texts. What distinguishes reality from fiction in texts? How do we perceive clichés and can we overcome their constant reproduction? How can one express oneself through texts in order to make a social and artistic statement?
These and other questions were the focus of various working groups, led by Michael-André Werner, Alice Veil, Johannes Teschner and Kora Riecken,
which produced very different texts:
- Sint and other floods
- The end is near
- Short story: Plot development
- Tell me!
- Short stories with opposing associations
- Refrigerator poetry
- The role of questioning in literature
- Order texts
- Writing after a virtual archive tour
- Apocalyptic Writing
- Political fanfiction
- True stories
- Prologue/Dialogue
- stormy to cloudy
This time, self-organized working groups were also offered, focusing on peer-to-peer learning. Twice, there were working groups conceived and led by a participant with the support of instructors. A workshop leader was present to help and provide support.
On Wednesday, participants attended a reading by the guest authors at the Literary Colloquium Berlin (LCB) as an excursion were Julia Haenni (Switzerland), Samuel Hamen (Luxembourg), and Tonio Schachinger (Austria). In conversation with them, they got to know the literary scene from a different perspective.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the public presentation of the resulting texts took place via livestream with approximately 40 viewers. Kreatives Schreiben eV is currently working on a brochure containing texts by the participants and detailed descriptions of the working groups.
A text from it in the advance publication
Elena Eberhardt
The Flood
I took the day off work for the flood. With a soft blanket and a cup of tea, I settled comfortably on the wide windowsill and waited. It rained, as it had for weeks, and as predicted, around twelve puddles began to merge into the first pools. The gleaming cars parked at the roadside and the occasional lamp shuddered in them. It was quiet; only the occasional raindrop pattered against my windowpanes. The water didn't flow, but rather melted into ever-larger patches until the cars bobbed in the steely sky, interspersed with cigarette butts and bakery bags. The only movements outside were wet; I hadn't seen any birds in quite some time, and it seemed the others had done the same and stayed home today. They were probably also sitting by the window with a cup of tea, perhaps listening to a themed playlist. They would be having particularly profound and insightful thoughts. They would be becoming aware of the magnitude of what was happening and feel a warm lump in their stomachs with pride. Finally, they were part of something truly momentous.
Only the tea warms my stomach, and otherwise my body holds back as I am captivated by the approaching, silvery-rough surface. Already it swells from facade to facade, no longer bothering with contours. There is no surging, no rocking, only a pasty mass that refuses to flow any longer. The water smacks substance from my foundations. Sharp and relentless, it rises, layer upon layer, up, steadily, like the throbbing behind my eyes, devouring the rows of bricks. I wait until the water wipes the summer dust from my windows and I gaze through portholes. The world shrinks to my face in the windowpane, which trembles palely within its boundaries. I sit in an airy space, and the dampness stares dreamily into my small, strange world, marveling. It has become still, I think, and wait until my reflection dissolves into the gloom outside.
More texts will be published soon.
The seminar was funded by the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family.
