feeLit 2026: Radka Denemarková – Schokoladenblut

In the organizer's words:

From July 2 to 5, feeLit - International Literature Festival Heidelberg and its authors will be making a guest appearance at halle02 for the second time. Our festival venue is all about books and writing. This year, feeLit presents national and international literary stars and brings authors together with their audience.

feeLit 2026: Radka Denemarková - Chocolate Blood

Language: German

Radka Denemarková reads from "Hours of Lead" and takes us back to a 19th century that still resonates today. In her novel, nationalism, predatory capitalism, patriarchal violence and the exploitation of the earth do not meet as a closed past, but as lines of violence that run through the centuries. At the same time, feeLit. takes a look ahead to the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair and its guest of honor, the Czech Republic, with one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Czech literature.

Mid-19th century: Czech author Božena Němcová writes a patriotic fairy tale whose message she herself is not convinced by. At the same time, George Sand was living a radically different model of female authorship in France - self-determined and non-conformist. While national identities are being fought over in Europe, on the other side of the Atlantic, J. D. Rockefeller is founding his empire on a viscous brown raw material, laying the foundations for a new era of global power.

Radka Denemarková, born in 1968, is one of the most important Czech authors of the present day. She works as a playwright, screenwriter, essayist and translator of German literature and is the only Czech author to have won the Magnesia Litera Prize four times. In 2023, she was admitted to the German Academy for Language and Poetry. In 2024, the President of the Czech Republic awarded her the Medal of Merit of the 1st degree for services to the state in the field of culture and art.

"A fervent appeal to rethink our attitudes, because we carry a stain within us that makes us susceptible to demagogues, promises of salvation and supposed leaders." Michael Stavaric, Die Presse

"Radka Denemarková's prose is a magic mirror." Olga Tokarczuk

Good to know

• Only cashless payment (EC card, credit card, contactless) is possible at our venue: halle02.de/cashless
• Seated event, free choice of seats
• Local organizer: FeeLit - International Literature Festival Heidelberg
• Secure resale of tickets only via our partner TicketSwap: halle02.de/ticketswap