By invitation of Swedish author Aris Fioretos, eight international authors were guests at Poetica 5 in 2019 to explore the theme “Rausch. States of Euphoria”. Among them was Lebogang Mashile from South Africa, who, in a discussion with Fioretos and during the performance of her poem "Vulva Volcanoes" together with Nicola Gründel from Schauspiel Köln, demonstrated the heights to which poetry can throw us.
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Poetica The Festival for World Literature
Poetica, the Festival for World Literature in Cologne was founded in 2014 by Günter Blamberger and Heinrich Detering. Its main idea is to create a dialog between scholars and poets in public events, which are conducted in cooperation with cultural institutions in Cologne such as Schauspiel Köln, Literaturhaus Köln and Cologne’s public library. Each year a curator sets a central theme and invites a group of authors from around the world with whom the maps of world literature are to be re-measured. The curators are also associated as Fellows at the International Center for Advanced Studies Morphomata at the University of Cologne, which organizes the annually festival in cooperation with the German Academy for Language and Poetry.
