The Walberberg Seminar, taking place on 28 – 31 January 2010 is this year entitled: 'Creativity, Culture and Conscience in Today’s Europe.'

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

The coming seminar in January 2010 will be the 25th event in this series.  Poet and novelist Blake Morrison, who participated in the 1988 seminar, will chair and participating writers are Linda Grant, Aminatta Forna, Ian Jack, Alan Jenkins, Maureen Freely and, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the event, we have invited as special guest, the novelist Will Self.  Author biographies are available on the BC Germany page.

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 will be attended by approximately 75 participants from across Europe, including a broad mix of academic critics, professors of English, publishers, journalists and translators.  It offers 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 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 2009, the forthcoming Walberberg Seminar takes place in our conference venue at the Akademie Schmöckwitz, near Schönefeld airport, on the green outskirts of Berlin. The seminar lasts from Thursday evening until Sunday morning.  The residential setting encourages stimulating and intense discussions in both formal and informal settings. For further information please contact Sinead Russell, Literature Adivser.

History

Last year's seminar ran from 22  – 25 January 2009 on the theme ‘Changing Literary Climates', chaired by Patricia Duncker and featuring: David Edgar, James Meek, Michael Symmons Roberts, Rachel Seiffert and Simonetta Wenkert.

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, 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, 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