Unexpectedly Worth a Visit: Literary Recommendations from the Cultural City of Hanover

Hanover is reading aloud—and Berlin should definitely listen 👂

Admittedly, when you think of a literary city trip, Leipzig, Weimar, or your favorite crowded bookstore two blocks down might be the first places that come to mind. But not far away lies a city where literature isn’t just neatly arranged on the shelves. In Hanover, literature takes the stage and hits the dance floor, meets music and performance, strolls through the city center, and even steps out of the book’s cover for a speed-dating event.

Hanover’s literary scene is large, well-connected, and delightfully open to experimentation. Between the Literaturhaus, cultural centers, and the independent scene, established authors meet young voices, poetry meets a club-like atmosphere, and major social issues meet formats that, thankfully, don’t feel much like a lecture. So if you’d like to get away from Berlin for a bit and dive into new stories, Hannover has a few pretty good chapters in store for you.

Literary events in Hanover that are worth the trip 🚄

Hanover’s literary calendar can be quiet, loud, political, playful, and wonderfully offbeat. These events beautifully illustrate just how many forms stories can take once you take them off the bookshelf.

Listen to Hanover: The "Stadt Klang Wort" Literary Audio Tour 🧏

Would you rather explore Hanover’s literary world at your own pace? Then grab your headphones and let’s go: The “Stadt Klang Wort” audio tour takes you through the city center via eight listening stations, linking real-life locations with the voices and texts of historical and contemporary authors.

At the train station, Fernando Aramburu reads in Spanish; Doris Dörrie recalls her first trips to the movies; and on the banks of the Leine, Kurt Schwitters encounters “An Anna Blume.” Add to that Hannah Arendt, Hanover-based slam poets, and poetry under the plane trees—a city walk in which Hanover itself becomes an open book.

Time for a literary journey from Berlin to Hanover

Grab your favorite book buddies, pick an event, and treat yourself to a little Berlin break. Hannover’s literary scene awaits with open books, open hearts, and plenty of good reasons for a cultural getaway. For more inspiration, check out Kulturstadt Hannover and follow @kulturstadthannover on Instagram.

More Voices, Even More Ideas

The fact that literature seems so vibrant in Hanover is largely due to the people who write it, speak about it, organize events around it, and continue to develop its ideas. One of them is Ninia LaGrande: a slam poet, writer, and blogger, known from podcasts and television. She writes and speaks about everyday life and feminism, art and politics—and, through her queer-feminist series “Ninia Presents…,” regularly invites exciting female authors to the Pavillon Cultural Center.

The Hannover Authors’ Center also keeps the scene buzzing. At the monthly Young Authors’ Club, participants not only create texts but also forge connections, generate ideas, and launch new projects: Among other things, the Klassenbuch Verlag publishing house and the “Blüten & Kelche” spring festival have emerged from this network. In this way, Hanover charmingly demonstrates that literature doesn’t have to be a solitary, desk-bound endeavor.

The Hannah Arendt Fellowship for persecuted authors, administered by the Literaturhaus Hannover in cooperation with the Cultural Office, demonstrates just how seriously the city takes freedom of speech. As part of the international ICORN network, Hannover offers threatened writers a safe place to live and work. Iranian author and journalist Atefe Asadi is the tenth fellow living in the city and is active nationwide with readings and literary projects.

With HANNA, the state capital of Hanover is also turning its attention to authors with ties to the city who are just beginning their literary careers. In contrast, the Hölty Prize for Poetry honors outstanding poets from across the German-speaking world—promoting literature with an eye toward emerging talent and a major platform.

And since, as we all know, a love of reading can start early, children’s and young adult literature is also firmly established in Hanover. The Friedrich-Bödecker-Kreis brings authors to daycare centers and schools for readings and workshops, participates in the Salto Wortale children’s literature festival—and, with Hartmut El Kurdi, Wolfram Hänel, Nikola Huppertz, Stephanie Schneider, Nina Weger, and Ingo Siegner, numerous well-known children’s book authors call the region home.