Brave New Voices

Édouard Louis was born in 1991. His autobiographical debut novel The End of Eddy, which charts his childhood and escape from extremely precarious circumstances in a village in northern France, caused quite a stir in 2015. The book became an international bestseller and made Louis a literary shooting star. His books are published in 30 countries and are frequently adapted for the theatre and filmed. He has presented his literary positions, for example, as the Samuel Fischer Guest Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin (2018), at the Mosse Lecture at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin (2019) and at the Tübingen Poetry Lectures in 2023. His most recent publications are Who Killed My Father and A Woman’s Battles and Transformations. Édouard Louis lives in Paris. 

Sivan Ben Yshai, born in Tel Aviv, is an Israeli playwright and theater director. She has lived in Berlin since 2012. Her plays have been performed at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Münchner Kammerspiele and in Helsinki, Luxembourg, Tel Aviv and New York City. In 2019, Sivan Ben Yishai was in-house playwright at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. In 2022, she was awarded the Mülheim Playwriting Prize for Wounds Are Forever (Self-Portrait as a National Poet) and was selected as Playwright of the Year 2022 by Theater heute. In 2022 and 2023, her plays were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. Her plays have been published both in German and in the original (English) by Suhrkamp Theaterverlag since 2017. In 2023 she was awarded the Berlin Theater Prize. According to the jury, the playwright "appeared in the firmament of German-language theater like a comet"; this was the first time the prize was awarded to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to German-language theater without writing in German. In 2024, she won the Mülheim Drama Prize for the second time. 

Fatma Aydemir is a writer and journalist. Her debut novel Ellbogen (Hanser Verlag, 2017) has received several awards and was made into a feature film in 2024. For her second novel Dschinns (Hanser Verlag, 2022), she was nominated for the German Book Prize and awarded the Robert Gernhardt Prize. Aydemir is a columnist for the British Guardian newspaper, author of the theatre play Doktormutter Faust and curates the discussion series Materien at Schauspiel Essen. 

Hengameh Yaghoobifarah is a writer, editor (Missy Magazine & Delfi. Magazin für neue Literatur) and DJ living in Berlin. Hengameh’s publications include the essay collection Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum, which they released together with Fatma Aydemir, the debut novel Ministerium der Träume, the column collection Habibitus and the WDR radio play Unverpackt. Their second novel Schwindel is due to be published by Blumenbar in September 2024. 

Jeremy O. Harris is an emerging African-American playwright and author known for his provocative and innovative works. Born in Virginia, USA, Harris has quickly gained attention for his talent in exploring themes of race, sexuality and power on stage.  

His best-known work, the Broadway play Slave Play, has sparked controversy and received praise for its bold approach. In Slave Play, Harris makes the connections between past and present by exploring the dynamics of race and sexuality in a therapeutic setting.  

Harris' writing is characterised by his ability to break taboos and ask uncomfortable questions of the audience. He often combines different theatrical styles and elements to create an immersive and provocative experience.  

As an emerging voice in contemporary theatre, Harris is committed to pushing the boundaries of theatre and offering new perspectives on complex social issues.

Cemile Sahin was born in Wiesbaden in 1990. She studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and is an ars-viva award winner for Fine Art. Her debut novel TAXI was published in 2019, followed by her book ALLE HUNDE STERBEN in 2020, both of which are integral to her artistic practice. Her third novel KOMMANDO AJAX will be published by Aufbau Verlag on 17 September 2024. Sahin was honoured with the Alfred Döblin Medal for her writing.  

Fatima Khan (*1987 in Bhola/Bangladesh and brought up in Cologne) is a freelance author, artist, curator and presenter. She writes poetry, prose and essays and is currently working on her debut novel. She studied ancient languages and cultures - classical literature and German studies at the University of Cologne. In 2018, she was the initiator and co-founder of q[lit]*clgn, Germany’s first feminist literature festival. Since 2022, she has been studying Media Arts specialising in Literary Writing at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). 

She is currently also a participant in the text workshop Kölner Schmiede and a mentee in the 1:1 mentoring programme of the Literaturbüro NRW with Mithu Sanyal. On Instagram, under @fatum.khan, she searches for the sacred in profane everyday life.