The Walberberg Seminar, took place this year from 27- 30 of January, and the theme was 'Literature and Health'.

The Walberberg Seminar is the largest and longest running annual Literature seminar held overseas.

This year marked the 26th event in this series. Writers JEN HADFIELD, NELL LEYSHON, BLAKE MORRISON, TIM PARKS , MARTIN ROWSON, HELEN WALSH and AL KENNEDY all took part.

The Walberberg Seminar was founded by Malcolm Bradbury, who chaired the first seminar, in 1986. Since then the Seminar has been held every year, promoting the UK’s creative ideas and literary achievements and developing creative partnerships between the cultural and other sectors in Europe.

This year, the seminar was attended by participants from across Europe, including a broad mix of academic critics, professors of English, publishers, journalists and translators.  It offered participants a lively literary experience with a concentrated mix of readings, talks, performances, panel discussions and creative writing workshops and provides the opportunity to talk directly with writers about their work. Many people who have attended the seminar in the past have described it as a unique and intimate literary event where they were introduced to a network of like-minded people.

Where and when

As in 2010 the Walberberg Seminar took place in our conference venue at the Akademie Schmöckwitz, near Schönefeld airport, on the green outskirts of Berlin. The seminar lasted from Thursday evening until Sunday morning.  The residential setting encourages stimulating and intense discussions in both formal and informal settings.

History

Writers who have appeared over the years Include: Leila Aboulela, John Agard, Patience Agbabi, Simon Armitage, Paul Bailey, Sebastian Barry, John Burnside, Ciaran Carson, Angela Carter, Amit Chaudhuri, Jonathan Coe, David Constantine, Wendy Cope, Andrew Cowan, Jim Crace, Louis de Bernieres, Marina Carr, Jim Crace, Fred D'Aguiar, Anne Devlin, Jenny Diski, Maura Dooley, Louise Doughty, Margaret Drabble, Helen Dunmore, Patricia Duncker, Douglas Dunn, Geoff Dyer, David Edgar, Anne Enright, Bernardine Evaristo, Alison Fell, James Fenton, Tibor Fischer, John Fuller, Carlo Gebler, Maggie Gee, Lavinia Greenlaw, Romesh Gunesekera, Abdulrazak Gurnah,  Wilson Harris, Philip Hensher, Michael Hofmann, Alan Hollinghurst, Richard Holmes, Robert Irwin, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kathleen Jamie, Amryl Johnson, Jackie Kay, Stephen Knight, Penelope Lively, Liz Lochhead, Moy McCrory, Ian McEwan, Jamie Mackendrick , Bernard McLaverty, E A Markham, Glyn Maxwell, Pauline Melville, Livi Michael, Timothy Mo, Sinead Morrissey, Blake Morrison, Patrick Neate, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Lawrence Norfolk, Alice Oswald, Kathy Page, Tim Parks, Don Paterson, Glenn Patterson, Jonathan Raban, Craig Raine, Jane Rogers, Bernice Rubens, Salman Rushdie, Will Self, W G Sebald, Jo Shapcott, Helen Simpson, Graham Swift, George Szirtes, Adam Thorpe, Anthony Thwaite, Rose Tremain, Jenny Uglow, Michelene Wandor, Fay Weldon, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Nigel Williams