Europa Erlesen: „Zwischen Welten: Unter Dojczen trifft Rückkehr nach Polen“ - Lesung und Gespräch mit Emilia Smechowski und Mia Raben -

How do you write about your own world of experience, about political grievances, lack of exchange and language barriers?

How do you write about friendships that transcend borders and break with long-outdated conventions?

Or even: how do you write about all the lives that are rooted in several places?

As part of the "Europa Erlesen" series of talks, we would like to address questions relating to concepts of home and identity and take a look at the German-Polish relationship in the present, past and future. The discussion will be based on the recently published debut novel "Unter Dojczen" by Mia Raben, which is dedicated to the special friendship between the Polish nurse Jola and Ursula "Uschi" von Klewen, the matriarch of a family of doctors in Hamburg, and the essayistic text "Rückkehr nach Polen. Expedition to my homeland", in which Emilia Smechowski focuses on the political and social development of Poland after 1989.

Emilia Smechowski, editor-in-chief of ZEITmagazin, journalist and author. Born in Poland in 1983, she fled with her family to West Berlin in 1988. She has received numerous awards for her reporting, including the German Reporter Prize. Her book "Wir Strebermigranten" was published in 2017, followed by "Rückkehr nach Polen" in 2019. After a year in Gdansk, she now lives in Berlin again.

Mia Raben, born in 1977, worked as a freelance correspondent in Warsaw, studied at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig and now lives as a journalist and author with her family in Hamburg. She has a Polish mother and a German father. "Under Dojczen" is her first novel.

How do you write about your own experiences, political grievances, lack of exchange and language barriers?

How do you write about friendships that transcend borders and break with long-outdated conventions?

Or even: how do you write about all the lives that are rooted in several places?

As part of the "Europa Erlesen" series of talks, we would like to address questions relating to concepts of home and identity and take a look at the German-Polish relationship in the present, past and future. The discussion will be based on the recently published debut novel "Unter Dojczen" by Mia Raben, which is dedicated to the special friendship between the Polish nurse Jola and Ursula "Uschi" von Klewen, the matriarch of a Hamburg family of doctors, and the essayistic text "Rückkehr nach Polen. Expedition to my homeland", in which Emilia Smechowski focuses on the political and social development of Poland after 1989.

Emilia Smechowski, editor-in-chief of ZEITmagazin, journalist and author. Born in Poland in 1983, she fled with her family to West Berlin in 1988. She has received numerous awards for her reporting, including the German Reporter Prize. Her book "Wir Strebermigranten" was published in 2017, followed by "Rückkehr nach Polen" in 2019. After a year in Gdansk, she now lives in Berlin again.

Mia Raben, born in 1977, worked as a freelance correspondent in Warsaw, studied at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig and now lives as a journalist and author with her family in Hamburg. She has a Polish mother and a German father. "Unter Dojczen" is her first novel.

Free admission - please register at Europaerlesen@stk.nrw.de